


It's over, isn't it?

by rafamarkos5998



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And Hal is with him through this, Black Lantern Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent, Canon has been stripped for parts, F/F, F/M, Good Parent Talia al Ghul, Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan to the Rescue, Guy is this close to adopting Jason, He's a bit ashamed, Hurt Jason Todd, I hope they surprise and entertain you, I hope this is not too derivative, I saw a fic using Jason as a Black Lantern, Jason Todd Deserves Better, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Kyle wants to make up for the multiverse jaunt shenanigans with Donna, M/M, Minor Jason Todd/Slade Wilson, Minor Lex Luthor/Jason Todd, Minor Ra's al Ghul/Jason Todd, Minor Roman Sionis/Jason Todd, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, POV Multiple, POV Third Person Limited, Polyamory, Social Worker Guy Gardner, Talia does not approve of Ra's doing that, Therapist Guy Gardner, also, and Bruce sees it like a prostitution-like scenario, and he gets it, and my interest was piqued, and rise like jason, and wants him dead, because I want to write a story with that, but it isn't, but they're going to be good friends, but this is, in pain and agony and longing for something warm, is not a tag for some reason, no Kyle/Jason unfortunately, no beta we die like robins, thanks to his partners, they're a part of the story, this close you hear me, those aren't tags for some reason, to be assembled as I choose, which is my way of saying that, yes there are more ships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:00:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27138346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rafamarkos5998/pseuds/rafamarkos5998
Summary: All things come to an end. That's how the saying goes, right? But the saying says nothing about whether the end is graceful or ugly, kind or cruel, clean or messy. Those little details that matter the most are sorted in the immediate moment.Maybe there are other things he can do.a.k.a. Jason leaves the Bats, to become a Black Lantern. And suddenly, their world can no longer be the same.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall & Bizarro (DCU) & Jason Todd, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall/Jason Todd, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall/Koriand'r, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall/Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall/Roy Harper/Koriand'r/Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon & Jason Todd, Batfamily Members & Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Green Lantern Corps & Jason Todd, Guy Gardner & Jason Todd, Hal Jordan & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Koriand'r/Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner & Jason Todd, Lian Harper & Bizarro (DCU), Lian Harper & Roy Harper & Koriand'r & Jason Todd, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Roy Harper/Koriand'r, Roy Harper/Koriand'r/Jason Todd, Scar & Jason Todd, Talia al Ghul & Jason Todd
Comments: 92
Kudos: 449





	1. The Last Straw

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Violet Between Black and White](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825062) by [I_can_only_imagine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_can_only_imagine/pseuds/I_can_only_imagine). 



> This was inspired by the series [The Boy of Blackest Night](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956487) by the user [@I_can_only_imagine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_can_only_imagine/), primarily by part 2 titled [Violet Between Black and White](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825062). I was intrigued by the possibilities afforded by the core concept, and it meshed really well with a couple of story ideas I had had before. So this is the (somewhat unholy) combination of them all. I hope it's not terrible.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason is done with Bruce. He's _done._
> 
> _But what is he without the Hood?_
> 
> _Maybe this ring can tell._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will combine some other ideas I had into the 'Jason leaves the Bats' story indicated here. They might not work for you, so I apologize in advance.

Jason felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him as Bruce's voice faded into the background.

"-son, this is the last time I am warning you. If you do not control yourself, I will be forced to-"

"Put me in Arkham, I know. Let's stop pretending that you're just looking for any excuse just to prove to yourself that you are correct about me."

Damian decided that was the correct time to voice his opinion. "Todd, Father is doing you a favour by giving you any chances at all. It would be unwise of you not to show gratitude for his leniency."

"Demon Brat, shut it. There's a saying about glass houses, and I'm pretty sure your royal ass knows about it."

Bruce immediately rose to the occasion. "You have no right to speak of Damian that way. You know that he had been brainwashed from childhood."

"Please, Bruce, we all know that's not why you're giving him a pass."

"Jason, would it kill you to admit that you were wrong?" Dick asked.

"I'm sorry, but I am _not_ going to apologize for letting a child trafficker die to save an innocent kid instead."

"You do not get to make that call. You need to try harder and do better." Bruce stated coldly.

"Why? 'Cause you're Batman and I need to obey you?"

"Yes. You are in the field because I allow you to be. I need to be able to rely on you to obey orders."

"Ah, you want a good soldier, don't you?" He saw Bruce flinch at that but disregarded it. "Wow, your ego is wider than the fucking Pacific. How you manage to fit it into that frame is beyond me."

"Todd, you are not permitted to speak ill of Father. He was generous enough to take you in; you are obliged to show some gratitude for it." Damian interjected hotly.

"Oh, I think I paid him back for taking me in, _with my life_. He doesn't get to ask for more."

Bruce was not going to accept that. "You died because you disobeyed orders."

"Really, Bruce? Lying again?"

Damian appeared to be incensed by the accusation. "Why would Father lie about that? Cease this farce, Todd, and apologise already."

"I don't know, ask him. Probably because he wants to tell himself that everything is about him."

Bruce was having none of this. "Jason, this is madness. If I had known this is how you would turn out, I would never-"

The room fell silent.

"Go on, say it." Jason prompted.

More silence.

"Go on."

Jason looked to Cass, who was standing off to the side silently. He turned to look to Alfred, who was standing in the med bay, preparing his instruments for providing first aid, and remaining equally mum.

As time slipped by, nobody said a word.

Jason looked at Bruce, staring into his adoptive father's eyes for a few more seconds. He could see the longing, the love, the boundless affection.

But it was not for him.

He smiled, shook his head, and walked away towards the parking area.

Cass quickly broke through the group and strode ahead, grabbing his arm.

He wrenched it away violently and glared furiously at her.

"Don't. Touch. Me."

Her expression conveyed her shock and pain, and he wanted to assure her that it was not her fault.

He didn't.

He continued towards his bike, removing his helmet from below the seat and swinging one leg over.

He turned to the side, scanning the room until his eyes landed on Alfred once again.

He stared at the man he had once regarded as a grandfather. A kind man. A just man. A good man.

He shook his head, put on the helmet, started his bike and rode away.

And for the first time in a while, he didn't know what to do next.

* * *

As Jason left the building, Cass felt that this time, it was different.

She couldn't pinpoint exactly why, but it felt like Jason wouldn't come back this time.

She turned to Dad, who was still staring at the doorway. Her other brothers had shaken their shoulders and walked off to the med bay.

Dad turned around, to stare at the case with Jason's Robin costume. Covered in blood, torn and burned, he always looked to it whenever he argued with his son.

She knew that he knew he was in the wrong, so why did he try to force Jason to bend to his will?

She knew he loved him. She knew Jason could see it too. So why did they have to fight?

Why did Dad hurt someone he loved so much?

She had to tell him that Jason wasn't coming back. He needed to know, needed to go out there and apologise and make sure that it won't happen again.

"Dad."

"Yes, Cassandra?"

"He... will not return."

Dad looked... hurt. _Stricken_ , she remembered, that was the word. Jason had taught it to her during a reading session a few weeks back.

She swallowed back a sob at the thought that she won't get another one.

Dick seems to have a different opinion. "No, Cass, that's not going to happen. They always argue, and Jason always comes back. They'll fix it."

But Dick had either not seen the look on her Little Brother's face, or not understood what it meant. She had seen it, and she knew that Jason had left for good.

"He is not coming back. Not this time." She had to make sure Dad understood.

He remained silent.

She turned to Grandpa, who was performing first aid on her brothers. He turned to look at his son, the one he had raised and guided for so many years, and then looked straight at her.

And she could see that he knew.

She felt _rage-fear-sadness_ rise in her, as Jason went further and further away and nobody tried to stop him.

She had to try. She _had_ to. She needed to let Little Brother know that Dad loved him.

She put her mask back on and walked briskly to her bike.

She would get him back.

* * *

Barbara kept an eye on Cass and another on Jason, guiding the former and attempting to stop the latter.

It wasn't working very well, but it _was_ working.

At this rate, Cass would take at least half an hour to catch up to Jason.

She decided to bite the bullet and enter the traffic system. Jason had been obeying traffic laws so far, so there was a chance that he didn't anticipate anyone coming for him.

And wasn't that a sobering realisation, that Jason expected to be abandoned by the rest of his family in the face of Bruce's will?

As much as Barbara disapproved of Jason's methods and decision making, she couldn't deny that in this scenario, she would probably have made the same choice as him.

The somewhat more disconcerting realisation was that Bruce had probably attacked Jason merely because he was _Jason_. The odds of him giving the others a pass were... disturbingly high.

She changed the signal timings to put Jason on a more convoluted route to Park Row while giving Cass a shorter, more direct route.

And the effects were immediate - Cass was able to shoot down a street without hitting the brake while Jason had to loop around more than few winding alleys to get back on track.

By her estimate, they would meet up at the next set of light.

As Cass rolled up to the intersection, Jason took a turn onto the same street and stopped right there.

The two of them looked at each other, and an unspoken exchange of some sort happened between the two.

Barbara never knew how Cass and Jason managed to communicate that effectively with each other. Still, clearly the conversation (or whatever it was) had been fruitful since the pair managed to move away from the lights at a somewhat sedate pace and remained side by side as they headed towards Jason's safe house.

As the pair parked in the somewhat broken-down building that Jason had taken up residence in, Barbara wondered if this was truly the last straw if Bruce had finally crossed a line and lost his chance of ever having his son back thanks to his bone-headed insistence on reshaping Jason into the son he was still mourning.

As Jason entered the tiny studio apartment that contained his few valuable possessions, Barbara decided to activate his TV to get in on the conversation. Thanks to a chain of deplorable circumstances, the array of cameras and microphones Bruce had planted throughout the building his estranged son lived in would be of some actual use. (Sadly they were all pretty low-res, recording at just 1080p. Barbara made a mental note to tell the Bats to upgrade their city-wide recording setup to at least 4K as soon as possible. They needed to move with the times, after all.)

Cass was following close behind and shut the door as Jason moved around the house, removing a duffel bag from the wardrobe and stuffing it with some clothes and the books on the shelf.

Cass was clearly determined to get a word in.

"Little Brother... please stop. Please."

Jason, on the other hand, seemed oddly calm. There was no anger, just cold detachment.

"No."

"He loves you. You love him."

"Doesn't matter."

"He cares. I can see."

"Then tell me one thing, and please do not lie - did he mean what he said?"

Cass did not reply.

Luckily enough, Barbara was looking for an entry point into the conversation.

"Look, I know he said some things he shouldn't have, but you don't need to do this. You can work this out."

"I don't want to."

"I understand that Bruce has fucked up pretty badly, but trust me, he will apologise for what he said, and-"

"Doesn't matter. I don't want to have anything to do with any of you."

"Why can't you-"

"Because I'm _done_."

All three of them fell into silence, with the rustling of Jason's movements being the only audible noise.

"Little Brother-"

"Not anymore."

"Please, don't do this."

"I can't be your brother anymore. And don't bother telling me that Bruce is doing this because he can't accept me as I am now - he did the same thing before I died."

"What?" Barbara exclaimed. That was absurd, Bruce would never do that!

"He did. I don't know if asking him will do any good, since he's even lying about the reason behind my death, but hey, give it a shot. Maybe Cass will be able to overcome her overwhelming love for her new father to actually see if he's lying or not."

"Don't you dare attack-"

"A person who claimed to be my older sister and watched in silence as my father decided to drag my name and character through the mud for the umpteenth time, and came to me to try and patch things up so that he can sleep easier?"

"She didn't have-"

"A choice? Really? Because Bruce is a God, and cannot be opposed in his domain? Even when he's wrong? And I am supposed to go back to that?"

"You're being unfair."

"So was Bruce, and none of you dared speak up to him."

"Look, I get we messed up, but-"

"This will be the last time? Bruce will never repeat this? He will never hurt me again, with words or actions? He'll magically overcome his hatred of me?"

"He doesn't hate you!"

"He does. He hates me for not letting him have his mental construct of 'a good soldier' that can help him fuel his pointless crusade for control over Gotham and his ever-increasing brood of Bats."

"You're exaggerating."

"I'm not. And that's about as much justification as I can give you Barbie, for old time's sake. But I humbly request both you and your protege here to _leave me alone_."

Cass's expression showed her displeasure quite clearly. She hated the idea of her little brother walking away like they don't matter.

"Please. Stay. For us. We love you."

Jason's cold expression breaks down, and even though the slightly low-resolution camera footage, Barbara could see the sadness on his face clearly.

"Love isn't good enough for him to stop hurting me. And it isn't good enough for me to keep getting hurt by him."

He picked up his bag, his helmet, and his sniper rifle, and moved past Cass towards the door.

"I'm sorry. And goodbye."

* * *

After leaving Cass in what used to be his apartment, Jason strapped his bag to his bike, swung himself onto what space remained on the seat and rode off. It wasn't a golden sunset, which meant that he was not getting full points for dramatic effect, but it would be sunrise in a few hours, so he supposed he could work with that instead.

It hurt, to leave behind the best big sister he could have hoped for and a genuinely loving grandfather, but he had to.

Love was always painful like that.

He had been riding for about 90 minutes already, having left Gotham behind. He didn't exactly have a plan on where to go next - running away impulsively doesn't really give the best planning opportunities.

He decided to call the Outlaws. The would know what to do here.

However, before he could get to the speed dial embedded into his helmet, he saw... a black smudge near the horizon to his right.

Somehow, despite being black, it seemed to be... glowing? It was hard to tell.

Jason turned off the highway at the next exit, taking a somewhat less-travelled road towards what seemed to be... a deserted farm. He wondered if he was still in the boundaries of the State of New Jersey because he could find no explanation for such wastage of prime real estate.

It was barely a couple hours away from the city of Gotham, surely they could find a buyer.

He saw the black glow increase in size, but he was a bit too far away to tell if it was because he was getting closer or if the thing itself was becoming brighter. Well, he would be able to tell in a short while, so no point worrying about that.

He rode on ahead at a somewhat leisurely pace, enjoying the peacefulness of the desolate countryside.

There was a time not too long ago when he would have thought that he had been chained to Gotham. He had always felt this pull beneath his skin, tying him to the city despite the despair and hopelessness and betrayal that consumed him nearly every waking moment.

Or maybe it was _caused_ by the despair. He couldn't tell.

The glow became even larger, and yes, he was definitely getting closer. He could also tell that there was an object suspended in the middle of the sphere of blackness (and looking at it made part of his brain kept scream at him that this was bad and he should run) and that it was pretty tiny.

It was probably dangerous, but hell, Jason's been living dangerously for his entire life. He has rarely if ever, had the comfort of safety, he could deal with a glowing orb in some deserted place in the middle of nowhere.

Jason stopped the bike once he was within a few feet of... whatever it was. He got off the bike, pulled out the stand and walked the rest of the way to it.

It seemed to be a force-field of some sort... surrounding a ring.

A _black_ ring.

Uh-oh. This was bad.

"Jason Todd of Earth-"

"No, no, no. No. Just no."

"...Well, I can't say I didn't expect that."

"Wow, you are surprisingly cooperative. From what I've heard, rings usually don't actually understand consent that well."

"That's because this ring is not programmed to do anything, really. It merely has a direct line to me."

"And who are you?"

A projection pops up, showing something... no, some _one_ that looked an awful lot like that Ganthet dude that Kyle had talked about. Except that the general colour scheme was more... black.

"I am Scar, the Guardian of the Black Lanterns."

"From what little I know about the shit you pulled not so long ago, I think you're the type I'm supposed to fight against."

"Black Hand and his plot are in the distant past, at least by your standards. The entity named Nekron no longer exists, and neither does the Power Battery containing the Anti-Monitor. And yet, the rings still remain. I have to believe they have a purpose."

"I don't see how I am a part of this."

"You have been left without hope, or will, or fear, or rage, or greed, or compassion, or love. Due to recent events, I believe. And yet you still have the capacity for those emotions."

Jason bristled at the thought of someone trying to psychoanalyse him from the other side of the universe, but he decided to grit his teeth and ignore it. "That sounds like a pitch _against_ you, you know."

"There are many across the universe that have been left without the capacity for emotion. Those who have been reduced to basic survival, where the various aspects of the emotional spectrum have little part to play. Those who are, as far as the rings are concerned, dead."

Jason knew what that felt like. He had known it for far too long. Ever since the streets, he had known what it was like to be ground down to a point where survival was all that mattered. A state of mind that had come back now, under these new circumstances he found himself in.

"And yet, here you are, alive. And so are they."

"The other corps are present all across the universe. It's their job to provide all that good emotional juice to these people, right? What's one Black Lantern going to do?"

"They can look down on those robbed of the power to feel, and show sympathy and pity. Is that what you want at this point?"

"...No."

"Then there you have your reason."

"I don't see how this is supposed to work. At all. Like, on any level."

"I'm not entirely sure either. But then again, we all need reasons to live, and you don't feel enough to be able to supply one for yourself."

No, he didn't. But he'd be damned if he let some random entity tell him how to live his life.

"I need time. To discuss this."

Scar nods. "Go ahead. I will wait."

"So... how do I find you again?"

"I can have the ring follow you... or you can keep it."

Before Jason could voice his concerns, the entity continued.

"You will not need to wear it. You can carry it on your person. And when you are ready, call for me."

Well, he could work with that. He could see if this was a nefarious plot of some sort.

He really needed to call Roy already.

* * *

"Okay, this is crazy. _Way_ too crazy."

Roy was clearly not going to be the quiet, sympathetic friend that let him voice his concerns and think through this on his own terms.

Which was probably a good idea, since the guardian - Scar - had clearly stated that he was emotionally compromised, by dint of no longer having any emotions left in the first place.

Oh well. Maybe the women in the room would be more useful. They always were.

"Kori, Artemis, what do you think?"

"I agree with Roy on this - it is crazy." Kori declared.

Well, at least Artemis would be somewhat more reasonable.

"And so do I, Little One. This is crazy."

Well, shit.

"You guys are supposed to be my friends. Support my decisions, dammit."

"Not when they are foolish, Jaybird." Roy shot back.

"Why is it stupid? I get to leave Bruce behind somewhat permanently, I see that as an absolute win."

"You're becoming a Black Lantern. That didn't go well with _anyone_ last time."

"And besides, if it's a space trip you want, we have a ship on hand. A pretty good one, thanks to Roy's work." Kori added.

"Look, it's more than that. You know it."

Everyone fell silent at that.

"You do not need to prove your worth to us, Little One." Artemis reminded him gently.

"Of course I know that. But I need this... I need to do something else, _be_ something else. Something that Bruce doesn't get to define."

"And that's why you're thinking of fleeing Earth and becoming a Black Lantern after getting disowned by Bruce?" Roy asked.

"It wasn't the first time he's done that. It doesn't matter to me."

"Like hell it doesn't." His tone was clipped, and Jason could sense the anger leaking through.

"Hey, let's have another chat with this Scar person. Maybe we can get more details out of them."

Roy shook his head, evidently giving up on this round of the argument.

"Roy, please, don't look at me like that."

"Yeah, I'll stop when you stop being stupid like this."

* * *

Jason removed the ring from his pocket, where it had been sitting for about half a day. He looked at Roy, then Kori, and finally at Artemis, before looking at the room where Bizarro and Lian were sleeping. The three of them looked back at him.

"Okay, so what do we do now Jaybird?" Roy asked. He was still angry.

Jason shrugged his shoulders and seemingly decided to buy into the stupidity of it all. "Scar, we would like to talk."

The ring floated out of his hand, and the projection he had seen before started up again. An alien's face - probably Scar's - was visible on it.

"Jason Todd. It is good to see you. What would you like to know?"

Roy decided to speak for him. Jason couldn't be trusted to save his own skin here. "We would like to know how the ring works and why it chose Jason."

"Unfortunately, I do not have definite answers to either question. I have theories, but they can be better explained if Jason was to put on the ring and demonstrate."

"Yeah, no can do-"

"I'll do it."

Roy's head snapped around to face Jason, but before he could warn the ex-Robin about how ridiculously reckless that was, the guy had already gone and done it.

"What the fuck, Jason? You can't just do that!"

And it seemed as though their suspicions had been validated - Jason wobbled on his feet and the ring spurted a black goo that enveloped the prospective Lantern's arm, nearly going all the way to the shoulder before receding into the ring.

Roy picked up his bow from the nearby table and notched an arrow, ready to disable Jason to the best of his ability. Near him, he saw Artemis summon Mistress to her aid, and Kori's hair became even brighter as she braced herself for combat.

Then, Jason slowly got up. He opened his eyes.

They all remained ready.

Jason looked at them, and they looked at him. His pupils, which were always switching between various shades of green and blue, were now black.

But then he cocked his head to the side, and his pupils ran through a gamut of colours too fast to follow.

"You're afraid of me."

_Wait what?_

Thankfully, Artemis knew what to say here.

"Not afraid of you, Little One. Afraid _for_ you."

Roy decided to push the desire to hug and cuddle Jason to the side for now and ask the important questions.

"What do you see, Jaybird?"

"Something new." Scar quipped.

"Oh shut up, we don't need your sage wisdom here." Roy snarled. "Jason, are you alright? Answer me."

"Yeah... I am. I think."

"What do you see?" Kori asked.

"Wires. Or maybe strings? I don't know... but something, along those lines. They're coming from you to me. They're... purple and yellow and... I don't know what this colour is. It's blue, but not exactly."

"Indigo." Scar provided. "The colour of compassion."

"And red from Roy. Quite a bit of it." Jason added.

"I would hope so. I am _pissed_ at you. You did not need to pull that stunt."

"He wanted answers, and he got them." Scar helpfully informed him. Roy wanted to punch that... woman? Man? Something else? He didn't know, and he didn't care.

"Yeah... I did." Jason said, his voice choked with wonder and awe. "There's a similar set of black lines coming from the ring to my chest."

"And that, I believe, answers one of your questions."

Roy was _done_ with these cryptic sage types who answer every damn question with an incomprehensible riddle. He was _sure_ that they only did it so that they could get people to ask them the question he was about to. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"I believe the ring, in the absence of any other source of power, uses the bearer to fuel it. The Black Lantern rings have always gained power from the emotional capacity of others."

"So it's sapping us?"

"No. It is using what you can provide to Jason as a source."

"So it's sapping Jason. That's not much better."

"Unlike most other rings, which use the bearer as a conduit for stamina, this one has the advantage of only taking what Jason will give."

"But you said that Jason doesn't have emotions left, so what does he have to give?"

"And there's a reason for that, isn't there, Jason?"

Jason did not reply.

* * *

While Roy was arguing with Scar, Jason looked at the other... strings. Yeah, he should call them strings. Or threads, that would work just as well. He just needed to get the point across.

One of them was purple and thicker than most of the rest. It came through one of the windows to the South-East and was angled slightly towards the sky. It also had some red mixed in, and quite a bit of indigo and standard blue as well.

No prizes for guessing who that belonged to. He reminded himself to send a text. She would be pretty mad if he didn't.

There were three other strings, comprised of varying amounts of orange and yellow and red and violet. Those guys would need some texts as well.

Another one built out of red and yellow. Nah, he's not getting a text.

A couple threads of violet and indigo, with touches of yellow. Some more similar threads, with less violet and more yellow.

And one large string of multicoloured threads - violet and indigo and blue and green and yellow and orange and red.

But the coloured parts were minuscule compared to the black rope that they were bound to.

Jason bent down and decided to touch the rope to see who it was. He had an idea already, but then, he had never been one to shy away from painful truths.

As his fingers wound around the string, he felt the life drain out of him, and a whirlwind of thoughts that were not his own.

It was too much.

He pulled his hand away, dropping the string. The maelstrom of emotions and ideas stopped, but his heart was still beating wildly.

Dimly, he could hear Roy asking him to respond, but it was hard. So hard.

Slowly, consciousness returned, and he found himself cradled in his favourite archer's arms.

"What was that?"

"...I think I get why it chose me."

"Then please, tell us. Scar over here has this bad habit of speaking in gibberish."

A short, barking laugh rang across the room, but nobody paid any attention to it.

"I'm already used to what the ring does. I've already learned how to live with it."

"Why?"

"Bruce."

"Oh."

And honestly, what else could be said about that?

Jason does have one question for Scar.

"If I do this... will I get to break away from him?"

"No. That kind of bond... seldom breaks. It is capable of lasting across universes and timelines."

"Well that sucks."

"But you can learn to live with it. Lower its power over you, and not let it rule your life."

Jason looked at the large black rope again, as it looped over itself and dwarfed pretty much everything other connection he had.

"I accept."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As stated before, there's one more wrinkle to be added to this story here. Please do go through the second chapter before deciding if you want more of this.


	2. Zero-Sum Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain or loss of utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the utility of the other participants. In non-technical contexts, the term is often used to indicate the presence of duality in a scenario or a decision - to convey that a choice will have good and bad outcomes and that a scenario will lead to both winners and losers.
> 
> Jason and the Bats reckon with what has happened, and what it has led to. As do the people around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tags indicate what the other wrinkle in the story is, but please read through to see if it's working for you. If it isn't, I am extremely sorry for leading you on and would like to thank you for giving the first chapter a chance.

Jason watched the stars stretch out into a white streak as he sped across space, towards wherever he needed to be to learn how to control the ring.

He would pay good money to see Bruce's face when he found out that his son was a Lantern. A Black Lantern, at that.

At least he had given Talia a heads-up of sorts, before flying off. He'd stayed with the Outlaws for a few days, arguing about what to do next, before leaving some letters and sneaking off in the middle of the night.

Yeah, not his finest moment. He would make it up to them later.

As to the others... well, the Outlaws would tell them what they needed to know, and if they bothered the Bats in the meantime, he certainly wouldn't complain.

This trip was taking a while.

"How long till I reach the destination?"

"Approximately a day."

"That's enough time for you to start explaining some stuff, Scar."

"With pleasure."

"First off - are you male, female, or something else? And yes, it is important."

He could feel the eye roll, but he ignored it.

"I am female, although how that is supposed to be important is beyond me."

"On our planet, and especially in this language, gender identity is a somewhat vital construct."

"I'll take your word for it. May we proceed to more important matters?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Scar launched into a long-winded explanation of some of her theories on how the ring sustained itself after Nekron and Black Hand were destroyed. Jason barely listened to any of it.

"Are you listening, boy?"

"No. But I will if you tell me something relevant."

"The history of the rings-"

"Is not that important to my friends or me."

"They're not just friends, are they?"

Jason decides to not dignify that with a response.

"Do not worry, I do not believe they will be very troublesome for you."

"Wow, you are optimistic."

"Merely wise. As I was saying-"

"Just tell me how this is supposed to work."

"What do you feel when you help people?"

"Proud. Happy. Relieved."

"And?"

"...Angry. Hopeful. Afraid."

"And I'm pretty sure the other parts of the spectrum are present too. The same will be felt by the people you assist. Especially in extreme situations that involve life or death, where emotional capacity is returned after a period of being reduced to their base survival instinct."

"What's your point?"

"The Black Lanterns have always been fuelled by the emotional capacity of those around them. The original method they used was to sap the energy from a living Lantern on the spectrum. I believe that the ring does not need the energy to be from a Lantern - it can use _any_ source whatsoever."

"Okay... so where do I fit in?"

"If you manage to assist anyone - from saving their lives, to helping them with a stressful task, they will feel some emotion towards you. It will bind you to them, and you will be able to use it to power the ring."

"And since killing them would cut off the source, so being a good guy and helping them is a better way of making this a long-lasting thing."

"Precisely."

"Glad to learn that morality has nothing to do with your involvement here."

"There are many ways of doing the right thing. Yours happens to be a way that fuels my cause."

"And what is your cause?"

"My cause is the void. The end. The final truth at the end of all things."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all."

"As an example - the Anti-Life Equation could just as easily be termed a 'Life Equation'. Every equation is essentially a summation of positive terms and negative terms that equal zero."

"That was the worst attempt at profundity that I have ever seen or heard."

"The point is, the Anti-Life Equation is not a murder tool in and of itself. It identifies the factors that destroy life, yes, but other factors in the same equation prolong it. The terms must add up to zero, after all."

"Is this your way of saying that this is a yin-yang thing?"

"If that is a metaphor for duality on your planet, then yes. That is what it is."

"I still don't understand why you're doing this, and not just trying to resurrect Nekron or whatever other shenanigans your kind of people would normally get up to."

"There is no point to trying to resurrect Nekron or the Black Hand. The heroes of this world are fated to win those battles in the end - all we shall have is a period of victory followed by a period of defeat, and the cycle will keep going."

"Sounds like you're admitting defeat."

"Yes, I am. That does not mean that I cannot compel the universe at large to understand that they cannot dodge the void."

"You sound like every college student who just understood that death is a thing that exists."

Scar did not respond.

"Eh, that was probably lost in translation. No matter. But I have a question - if this is the same as what you would get if you were to fight for Nekron's ascendancy, and if death will eventually come for us all, then why stop fighting?"

"Would you like to be at war for all your life?"

Jason grimaced. "Yeah, point taken."

He motioned to the ring, and the slight static in his ear stopped. Why it would be there was beyond him - a ring call shouldn't have had anything like a telephone's background noise or coil whine. Should it? He would have to ask a Lantern to be sure, but he wasn't sure that approaching one was a good idea.

Well, he could think about that later. He could probably catch some sleep while he flew.

* * *

Dick let out a sigh of relief as he took off his mask and began to take off his armour.

It had been a tiring day, running across the city trying to stop criminals. On top of that, Lex Luthor had just come to Gotham. Everyone was on high alert, looking out for signs of something that looked even slightly suspicious.

And then, they had spotted Deathstroke.

Normally, Dick would have just walked up to the old hitman and openly questioned him to get clues on who his contract was, but given that Luthor was here, extra caution was necessary. Not to mention that Slade had looked at him with a quizzical tilt of his head when he came up to him, and had refused to give him _any_ information whatsoever.

Yeah, this was weird.

When he emerged from the changing rooms, the rest of the team had put on their usual post-patrol attire and were waiting for Bruce to start his daily debriefing session. Normally, most of them would have skipped out by talking to the man one-on-one, but today, they all needed to pool whatever information they had gathered and come up with a game plan for the next night. And maybe the day that was going to be well and truly here in just a few hours.

It had been just a few days since Jason vanished, and they were already feeling the strain.

The positives were that Bruce was less of an asshole and that they didn't have to deal with Jason treating them with suspicion and mistrust. The team dynamic had improved quite a bit, and arguments were less frequent.

However, being a man down had made the job more stressful. Jason had often been a useful bit of muscle, as well as one of their best agents for getting information from the lower classes. A lot of investigations that he had been handling for them had stalled completely, as had their response time for jobs that required multiple heavy hitters.

Going into Crime Alley was impossible - the locals were downright violent towards any of the Bats who dared step into the place, and the disappearance of the Hood hadn't really affected the militant nature of the populace. The only sign of him being gone was an increase in the frequency of patrols by one of the other Outlaws and his lieutenants, who would now form groups that could cover the entirety of the crime-infested stain on Gotham multiple times a night.

Tonight's schedules portal did not feature any Outlaws either. On top of that, Black Mask had gone to ground.

That was surely not a good sign.

"Well, since we are all here, we can begin." Bruce said, to kick things off. "Did anyone see anything unusual?"

"Apart from Luthor's accommodations looking entirely normal?" Tim remarked. "Nothing. _Nothing at all_."

"I saw some of Grandfather's forces in the city." Damian said.

"Are you sure, Damian?" Bruce inquired.

"Yes, I am. I observed them near the Carlton."

"That's not where Luthor is holed up." Tim remarked. "He was in the local LexCorp offices."

"Which means that Ra's is probably at the Carlton."

"And I saw Slade." Dick added.

He saw Bruce's shoulders stiffen, and heard his tone harden. "Did he do anything?"

"No, nothing at all. He refused to say anything."

"Are you sure? He didn't let anything slip at all?"

"Nope, I'm sure. He just said something about coming here to collect on a debt that was owed to him."

"Are you sure you're not just salty about not being able to tap the guy at a moment's notice?" Steph asks, a glint in her eye.

"Enough, Stephanie. This is serious."

"On that we agree, Detective. This _is_ serious."

The Bats turn their head to the speakers on the Batcomputer, which seemed to be the source.

"Ra's. Why are you here?" Good, Bruce was going straight to the point. Dick didn't want to spend his time engaging in pointless philosophical conversations with Ra's about the futility of Bruce's actions.

However, things went south pretty fast.

The exit bay, where all the vehicles had been parked, rose up to reveal the storage section below.

And standing before them were Ra's, Slade, Luthor and Sionis.

"Hello, Wayne. It's a pleasure to meet you." Sionis drawled.

"Roman." Steph hisses. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"We're here for the bird that ran away."

Uh-oh. What had Jason gotten up to?

"He owes us quite a few more nights, and we're here to collect." Roman said, walking up to them. "So you can tell us where he is, and we'll be on our w-"

_BANG!_

Dick almost jumped. _Almost_.

When his eyes finally landed on the source of the noise, Luthor was holding a large plasma gun, and there was a gaping hole in Sionis' chest.

The three remaining intruders looked at each other, and then the body. They shrugged, and moved closer, stepping around the slumped form of Roman Sionis and the pool of blood coming from his chest. Dick stepped back, trying to head towards the armoury to pick up a weapon. They were horribly unprepared for this.

Ra's was the first to break the silence.

"Apologies for his... crass behaviour. I assure you, the three of us do not share his sentiments on the subject of Jason."

Wow. _Ra's al Ghul_ was mentioning Jason by name, and with some degree of respect.

Given what Sionis had been saying, this did not look good.

"We just want to know where he is." Slade said, keeping his voice soft and calm.

"We don't know." Dick blurted out. "He left, we haven't seen him in a while."

Bruce glared at him, but Dick ignored it. He needed to figure out what Slade's angle was here.

"Surely the great Batman is aware exactly where his son his?" Lex asked, his lips twitching as he spoke.

"No, I am not." Bruce said through gritted teeth.

Everyone knew how much it hurt him to not have all the cards in an exchange.

Given that Slade, Ra's and Luthor seemed to be aligned together on this, it was even more necessary to not give them any free ammunition.

"Well, would you be willing to assist us in finding him?"

"It is odd for you to be asking for our assistance here, Grandfather." Damian observed. Dick felt a surge of pride at how much the boy had grown, in being able to snark back at the man who he was supposed to succeed.

"There is no shame in using expert assistance, boy. And your father here is the foremost expert at preparing to fight his allies."

Bruce's teeth were grinding together so hard, Dick was afraid that they would get filed down to nothing in a minute.

"Slade. What's the point of this?"

"I told you. I'm here for a debt that is owed to me. We all are."

"What kind of debt does Jason owe you?"

"The specifics of our arrangement should not be a concern, should it?" Luthor's words carried a sense of finality to them. "We are simply here to request your assistance in finding Jason Todd."

"What is your connection to my son?"

"Given that the Outlaws are already in a committed relationship, friends with benefits is probably the best term to apply here. Although the benefits with Roman had probably been marginal at best." Slade replies.

Wait _what_?

Jason was in a relationship with Roy, and Kori, and that Artemis woman?

And he was fucking Slade? And Ra's, and Luthor, and Sionis?

"The thought seems to have broken you, Grayson." Slade's voice carries the smirk that doesn't really show on his face.

"And what did Jason give you in addition to... himself?" Tim asked, clearly uncomfortable.

"Nothing at all, Young Detective." Ra's replied. "We entered individual agreements to support mutually shared interests and not engage in behaviour that would be detrimental to the other party's goals. The carnal side... was a minor part of the whole."

"Speaking of the carnal side, I have to say, your son is more talented than I expected." Lex offered. As if this whole discussion wasn't uncomfortable enough.

"I assure you, Detective, we do not intend to harm either you or the city of Gotham." Ra's said, his tone oddly conciliatory. "It would violate the terms of our agreement with Jason. We are merely here to find him and ask him why he has been missing."

Bruce was getting angrier by the second. "I will not let you defile my son-"

"Your precious son, who you have conveniently not even bothered to look for in a week, has been defiled already, and quite a few times at that." Slade supplied, his tone almost gleeful.

Bruce appeared to be on the verge of an aneurysm.

"What did you offer in exchange for Jason... whoring himself out?" Tim asked, ever focused on solving the case.

"Watch your tongue, Young Detective." Ra's warned. "Such slander is unbecoming of you."

"You all will stay away from my son." Bruce declared. "I will not allow-"

"You do not have authority over him, Mr Wayne." Lex said. "If you do not wish to assist us, simply say so. But this scramble for authority over a man you do not have a modicum of respect for is disingenuous at best and exploitative at worst."

"You sure you want to talk about exploitation, Lex?" Tim asked, anger seeping into his voice.

"If this is about Kon, I assure you, young man, I was unaware of what Cadmus was doing at the time, and I have taken steps to redress my negligence in that sphere."

Tim was about to refute that, Dick was sure, but Cass spoke up instead.

"We fought. Jason left after."

"Well, that explains a lot. Thank you, Cassandra." Slade was putting on his most cordial persona, Dick could see it.

"So do Jason's partners know that he's with you guys?" Dick asks, unable to keep the venom out of his tone.

"Of course they do." Slade replies. "I've probably been around Lian longer than you have."

"And I've probably spent more time with Bizarro than you have spent with your 'Little Wing', Mr Grayson. Might I suggest ending this little competition?"

"And that's quite enough of that." The voice is sharply melodious but still firm and forceful.

Talia al Ghul stepped out of one of the vehicles on the storage bay. Along with quite a few League assassins, who for some reason were not wearing the standard League gear.

"Hello, Mrs Head." Luthor was putting on the charm he had when he was running for President. "I presume you have heard our discussion so far?"

"I have." Talia's voice was ice cold.

"That is excellent news. Can you-"

"No. His current location is none of your concern. Rest assured that he will return, and you will be able to get in touch at the earliest."

"Thank you, Daughter." Ra's said.

"You are not my father."

Ra's laughed. "Your son is quite similar to you, it is surprising that you do not share ties of blood. He has learned well from you, in the art of seduction."

Talia smiled, teeth bared and malice in her eyes. "I did not teach him anything. And I assure you, Ra's, that I will remove you from our lives soon."

"Jason would be disappointed."

"He'll learn to cope. And I'm certain he has enough people to assist him with the same."

She turned on her heel and walked out, getting into the vehicle she emerged from and driving out the hacked doors. Dick made a mental note to go to Babs and provide whatever help he could with updating the security system. He wasn't as good as Tim or Babs, but he was good enough to understand most of the code, and this was probably an issue that could use another set of eyes to look through the lines upon lines of code that made up the security system.

"Well, I believe I can speak on everyone's behalf when I say that it was a _pleasure_ to meet you, Mr Wayne." Lex said, keeping his voice smooth and low. Dick's skin crawled at the sound. "We shall take our leave now."

Ra's bowed slightly, and Slade nodded in assent. Then all three turned to get to their own vehicles and leave.

As the last car left the Batcave, the buzzing from the Batcomputer's speakers was the only sign that this wasn't a wild fever dream.

Steph chose that exact moment to voice the thought that everyone was having.

"What the fuck was that?"

* * *

Artemis reclined back into the seat as the ship rushed through what Roy had decided to dub 'hyperspace'. There was probably a proper technical term for it, but Kori couldn't really translate the documentation they had found to English due to her lack of expertise with Tamaranean scientific terminology.

Well, hyperspace would have to do. According to Roy, this was because 'science needs more Star Wars references'.

She activated the autopilot and set the alarm for 20 minutes, which would be about how long it would take them to reach Jason's location. She thanked the gods for giving Roy the presence of mind to perform a full analysis of Jason's ring and thereby giving them a way of tracking him to a reasonable degree of accuracy after his recent idiotic stunt.

 _Idiot_. She wanted to punch him in the face for his stupidity and hold him close so that he never felt inadequate again.

_And may that bastard that calls himself Jason's father rot in the depths of Tartarus. The gods know he deserves it for what he has done to Jason._

Thankfully, Talia was on the ship with them, which meant that when they find Jason, they could probably dispense with all the pointless arguments about what he needed to prove and to whom.

Artemis took a seat beside Talia, who had been firmly planted near the large table in the central meeting room which they never really used. It was the largest room in the ship and had probably been a cafeteria when it had been on the Tamaranean fleet.

"We'll find him." She started with that to strike a reassuring tone, to try and soothe Talia's apparent worry.

"Oh, I am certain that we will. However, if this is an indication that Jason can and will scurry across the universe whenever he feels like he needs an escape, we need to have a better plan for resolving conflicts so that this sort of event does not repeat itself. I would prefer to be looking for him on Earth rather than in some random corner of space."

"I think we can agree on that one."

A silence descended between them, as neither could come up with something to continue the conversation.

Surprisingly, Talia was the one who broke it.

"I can see that you all love my son."

"We do."

"I believe you will be glad to know that Roman Sionis is dead."

"Are you certain?" Artemis doesn't want to believe it, doesn't want to have her hopes dashed on something so important.

"I watched him die. Lex Luthor shot him with a plasma gun."

"As much as I hate to say it, I am grateful to that man for his actions."

"He and Slade do not seem as... lecherous as Ra's al Ghul. I assure you, I _will_ get rid of-"

"I know." She placed her hand on Talia's for good measure.

"Thank you. My son is lucky to have you."

"And he is exceedingly fortunate to have you, Talia. And I hope we can convince him to start talking to us instead of running. It will be more difficult to chase him, now that he has a ring."

"Yes, it will."

The silence descended on them again, but it did not feel as oppressive this time.

Eventually, the alarm Artemis had set up rang out through the speakers.

"Thirty seconds to reach destination."

Artemis rose from her seat. "It is time."

"It is." Talia replied.

She went over to the navigation area, back into her usual seat. Roy slid into the one beside her, off to the port side.

"Let's go."

With a nod to each other, they both activated manual pilot controls and slowly pulled the ship out of hyperspace. Roy smiled apologetically, and Artemis grimaced, remembering the fiasco that had come about as a result of him experimenting with automating the exit sequence.

 _Hopefully next time won't be that bad,_ she mused, as the ship slowed down and a planet came into view.

The sensor tracking Jason pinged loudly, indicating that the man in question - or his ring, at least - was nearby. They trained the ship's telescope in that direction and looked through the output on a screen off to the side.

 _Bingo_.

There was the man, covered in a black suit and enclosed in a grey translucent bubble.

He immediately turned towards them, shock reflected plainly on his face.

 _He's probably sensing us_ , Artemis realized. _Like he did back at the base._

At least the ring had _some_ utility.

Roy fired a flare from the side gun - a single red shot. Fitting, given that they were all furious.

Jason smiled sheepishly at them and floated towards the ship. It seemed like he was unharmed.

_Good. I can punch him freely._

* * *

Jason knew he was fucked the moment the ship entered his view.

It was far away, but still visible. Also, he could see some of his most powerful connections terminating at that very point, which made it difficult to argue differently.

Also, given the amount of anger in the threads, it was likely that he was in a for a pretty thorough scolding.

Still, there were _four_ threads going to the ship, for some reason. He would have to figure out who that extra person was before forming plans.

He was hoping for Bizarro. He could reason with the guy and offer hugs to seal that deal. It also made the rest of them less likely to say anything particularly harsh.

As he approached the airlock, he saw the outer door open, and a blur of figures on the other side.

He could see two figures through the door, and one of them was definitely Roy, but the other one was too blurred to make a call.

He would have to wing this one. He just needed to start with an apology.

However, when the door opened, his thoughts came to a halt as he saw the person standing at the head of the group.

"Hello, Habibi."

Fuck.

"Hi, Talia. How are you doing?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write a story where Jason sleeps with a bunch of villains as a way of making them amenable to deals without making it a story about Jason selling sexual favours for making them stay off the Bats' radar. I also wanted to write a Lantern!Jason story, and a polyamory story with Jason. This is where I put all three together, and I hope it doesn't clash too hard.
> 
> I desperately need feedback on whether this is working or not. Please do comment on that, and thanks for reading so far!


	3. We Need Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and co. discuss their future (a bit) and go on a mission.
> 
> The Batbros go on interrogations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For any of you who are still here, I hope this is still working... Feedback is still extremely appreciated.

"Um... Hi, T. How're you-"

"Very well, thank you. Apart from having to deal with you fleeing across the universe."

Uh-oh. She was _pissed_.

"About that... I can explain."

"Yes, you can and you will. In detail, if you please."

Yeah, he was screwed.

Well, an apology should be a good start.

"I'm sorry I... ran away?"

"I hope you are, for your own good." Talia's response was icy.

He remained silent while they all walked to the table.

As they all seated themselves around the centre table, Jason decided to play for a bit more time.

"This will take a while... should we get some food first?"

Talia did not budge an _inch_.

"You do not need to worry about that, Habibi. I took the liberty of bringing some baklava I had made this morning, to share with you and the rest of your partners before Roy came to me with the news of your disappearance."

"Uh... that's great. I'll go get it-"

"There is no need to disturb yourself, Jason." Kori's hair was glowing brighter than usual, and her eyes literally blazed with anger. "I shall go fetch it."

Before Jason could object, she had floated down to the storage room.

He decided to wait it out. By the time Kori came back, Talia would have cooled down a bit. Hopefully.

It took Kori a minute or so, but she eventually returned with a large serving tray covered from end to end with the delectable pastry.

As Kori laid out a couple of plates for them, Talia was the first to remove one of the pieces. She put it into her mouth, chewing it slowly, savouring the taste.

Her eyes never left Jason.

_Shit. This was definitely not going to go well for him._

* * *

Tim took a few calming breaths, trying to get his nerves under control and accurately commit his list of prepared questions to memory.

A hand landed on his right shoulder. Looking to his side, he found it empty.

"Oh, stop it Kon."

"You need to relax, Tim. I'm not interested in watching you think yourself into a nervous breakdown before you even see him."

Yeah, Kon had a point there - he couldn't really gain anything by waiting longer. Frowning, he pushed open the door to Lex's office.

As he walked into the spacious room - the analytical part of Tim's mind recalling that it covered half the width of the floor and was larger than Bruce's downtown penthouse - he noticed the man sitting at his desk.

He was looking straight at him.

"Hello, Kon. And welcome, Mr Drake-Wayne."

"Thank you, Mr Luthor."

"Please, call me Lex."

"Then I must request you to call me Tim."

The pleasantries over, they resumed their staring contest.

"You're supposed to be looking over the city while plotting world domination, you know."

_Yep, there goes the script. I'm barely past the greetings, and I've already blown it._

"Then it is exceedingly fortunate that world domination is currently not on my list of goals."

"That's not exactly reassuring."

"I presume it's also not what you came here to discuss?"

Yeah, Luthor has the upper hand here. Tim needed to _focus_.

"No, it is not. I came here... to learn more about your relationship with Jason."

Luthor smiled, all teeth and no warmth.

"And why should I divulge that to you?"

"Because we are... concerned about him. And you."

"I'm not sure I understand." The guy had the _fucking_ audacity to put on a confused face, fucking bastard. "Please, elaborate."

"We want to know if his... connection to you involves some form of... quid quo pro."

"Aren't all relationships some form of quid quo pro? You give something you value - your time, effort and disposable resources - to get something you value - another person's affection."

"You know what I mean, Lex. Stop playing games."

"I assure you, no games are being played here. I enjoy Jason's company, and while I would not presume to speak for him, I would like to believe he enjoys mine. I have been told that I am quite capable of satisfying people, but when you're in my position in life, you can never be sure."

Yep, there it was. Tim wanted to pour bleach on his brain cells to forget the idea of Jason and Luthor... _together_. He wondered if he could ask M'gann for a mind wipe later when this was done and behind them.

"Does the idea make you uncomfortable?"

Yes. Yes, it did. A lot.

But he couldn't let Luthor have that.

"Exactly how did your... _relationship_ -" and _God_ the idea was sickening him to his core "-come about?"

"My, aren't you and the rest of your kind an inquisitive, meddlesome bunch?"

"We're merely... concerned about Jason."

"No, I do not believe so."

Luthor's voice hardens.

"No, I believe you are concerned about a threat to yourself through him. Forgive me, but I find it difficult to believe that with your history, you have any particular concerns about him."

"And I'm supposed to believe that you actually care for him?"

"Why, is it an affront to your ego that I am treating your brother better than you? Jason was right, you all do have pretty fragile egos."

"It has nothing to do with our egos, and everything to do with the possible... impropriety of your relationship. Given your... position, it is reasonable to suspect the possibility that you are... exploiting him."

Luthor laughed again.

His lips spread twice as wide, the sound was twice as harsh, and the room felt twice as cold.

"It is amusing, to watch you and your family stumble through this... more so than I had assumed before."

Lex took a deep breath and relaxed back into his chair. Tim let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding.

"He came to me... a few years ago. I... contracted him to deal with the staff of Cadmus after I found out about you, Kon. Well, it was more of an exchange of favours."

Kon inhaled sharply, indicating his surprise. Tim pointedly filtered it out. He could deal with that later.

"We met again soon afterwards, thanks to his association with Bizarro. He collected on the favour I mentioned earlier, and I attempted to ensure that Bizarro would live."

Lex's expression turned contemplative.

"Stabilizing him was... difficult. I had to make several sojourns across the world to gather the necessary tools and resources. Jason accompanied me for protection and often assisted me in the procurement process with his... unique skills. He also proved... a most charming bodyguard. Unlike many others I have known."

Tim felt a sinking sensation in his gut. He filtered that out too.

"I must say, your brother is a skilled man. In many ways. His company has been... most pleasurable."

"Did you help Bizarro in exchange for sex, Lex?"

Luthor raised his eyebrow. "Of course not, Tim. Why would I do that? I'm not a monster."

Tim was unconvinced. Why else would Jason be with Lex Luthor, of all people?

"It seems as though you are still... sceptical."

"Hell yes, I am. Jason's not the type to consort with people like you."

"And what exactly do you mean by that statement, 'people like you'?"

"Villains. Like you."

"If you don't remember, Jason's a villain too. And for the most part, us villains stick together. And often, we make sure to treat each other well. _Very_ well."

_Oh God. That didn't bode well._

* * *

"Well, it seems as though you have proven yourself unfit for carrying that ring."

Talia's tone brooked no debate.

Even then, Jason was determined to try.

"Talia - you can't!"

"I can and I will. And your partners here will back me up. Even your... consorts back on Earth will agree with me."

"Firstly, Mom, they're not consorts. Granted, I haven't gotten a better word than just 'friends with benefits', but that's because there's no better description that sounds refined." 

"Open relationship." Roy supplied. Jason ignored him.

"Second, I'm fully capable of bearing the ring. It only uses what energy I can give as a power source, I don't see why you need to be concerned about that."

"Even if I was to believe that statement, you lack any form of self-preservative instincts." Talia's tone brooked no debate and sought no response.

"Look, I'll admit I can be a bit reckless sometimes-"

"If there was ever a situation that demanded you to pour whatever energy you had into your ring, to save an innocent at the cost of your life, would you do it?"

"...Yes."

"Then forgive me, but I do not trust you with a tool that allows you to sacrifice yourself that easily. I am a selfish mother who wants her child to live, even if it comes at the cost of other lives, and I will _not_ stand by and let you do this to yourself. "

"Mom, I need this."

"And why is that?"

"It's all I have."

"It is most definitely _not_ all you have. In case you have forgotten, you have me. And Roy, and Kori, and Artemis. And Lian, and Bizarro. I do hope you consider us to be more than nothing."

"Of course I do, T. But you know as well as I do that it's not about that."

Talia put an arm around his shoulder, dragging him a bit closer.

"You do not need to prove yourself to him. You know that it will never be enough. I beg you, let it go."

"I can't just sit by and let people suffer, knowing that I could do something about it."

"And what about our suffering, watching you put yourself through trial after trial for no good reason?"

"I promise, this isn't about Bruce this time. It isn't. I'm done with him."

"Then why do you need to push yourself like this?"

"Because I can't be a selfish guy who does nothing while other people suffer."

"If being selfish is what keeps you with us, then yes, I believe all of us will agree that that is exactly what you should be."

Roy, Jason and Artemis all nodded curtly.

"Habibi. Please, stop this madness. Come home."

Jason smiled sadly.

"I can't, Mom. I need this."

Tears welled up in Talia's eyes, but Jason forced himself to ignore it. He could feel the love and the loss radiate through the purple rope joining them.

A similar wave of sorrow flows into him from Roy and Kori and Artemis.

It was fitting, that their pain was making him stronger.

"Jaybird, what's wrong?"

It was scary, how well Roy could read him.

"The ring... it's reacting to your feelings now. It's powering up."

Roy grimaced, as did the rest of them.

"It fits, huh? Guess I've always been fuelled by bad stuff like that. My own pain, and the pain of others, that's always been what keeps me going."

"Habibi. Stop."

Jason froze.

Talia was openly weeping now. _Shit_.

"T?"

"We _love_ you." Her tears were thick and heavy, like dewdrops in the morning. "Yes, love hurts, and sometimes you will want to strangle some sense into the person in question, but we love you and will support you as long as it has a chance of being good." She hugged him tight, for good measure.

Roy took that chance to set his own conditions, on behalf of the other Outlaws.

"And the moment it turns bad, we will pull you out. And you will _listen_ to us. No matter what."

Jason nodded, not trusting his voice.

His three partners joined the hug, and they remained that way for a while.

Once they were done crying, they all stepped away, to give each other a bit of space.

Jason straightened his t-shirt out, and then grinned at them.

"So. Who wants to save an enslaved town?"

* * *

Having decided to forego subtlety and delicacy, Dick crashed in through the window of the safehouse Slade was in.

A safehouse that had been stored on the Batcave's systems as one belonging to Jason.

 _The nerve on the bastard._ Dick's skin itched, in a desire to make Slade pay for...

For what, exactly? Having sex with Jason? That wasn't a crime, was it?

Well, even if it wasn't a crime on paper, they had to do this. It was unlikely that this relationship boded well for the Bats and the security of Gotham and her denizens.

"Welcome, Grayson."

Slade's voice was alarmingly calm. As if he had been expecting this.

"You knew we would come."

"Hardly a difficult prediction, is it? You want to know what I'm up to, and what Jason's connection with me entails."

Dick did not reply.

"For the record, it's entirely consensual. I have rules."

Dick scoffed. "Really?"

"Yes." Slade sounded serious.

"You don't seem like the guy who needs to respect boundaries."

"But I want to. I'm sure you remember that, from our time together."

Dick's skin crawled a bit more.

"'Our time together' was something I regret every day."

"And is that because you don't _like_ me, or because you don't **like** me?"

Dick remained silent.

"If it's any consolation, your brother is not that different from you between the sheets."

"Is that why you're with him?"

Slade laughed out loud. The sound grated on Dick's ears.

"You think this is about you?"

_Yes. Odds are, it is._

"Grayson, not everything I do is for the purpose of vexing you. As entertaining as it is to fuck with you, neither Jason nor I have brought you up in the four years we've been in our... current arrangement."

"Maybe that's why he's with you."

Slade grinned, baring his teeth.

"Nice to see how highly you think of both your own brother and me."

"Stop trying to dodge the issue."

"No, Grayson, I am not asking your brother to offer sex in exchange for favours. Satisfied?"

No. He was not.

"Look, boy, if you have no case here, allow me to investigate exactly what happened to him. You clearly have no interest in the matter, so stay out of my way."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because my word is worth something. Which is more than what could be said for you Bats."

"You said he owed you something. What is it, if not..."

"A night in my bed? It might have been that for Roman, but not for me."

"Then what was it?"

"Sorry Grayson, can't tell you. You might interfere, given that you're a hero."

"Are you admitting to planning a felony?"

"I'm not admitting to anything. Now if you please, the window is that way."

For some reason, Dick's feet remained rooted to the floor.

_I have to know._

"Why him?"

"Are you jealous, Grayson?"

"No. I'm concerned, and scared, and angry."

Slade paused.

"I like him. As he is."

Begrudgingly, Dick decided that there was nothing to be gained here. Stuck in a daze, he walked to the window, jumped out and grappled away.

As he landed in the next alley next to his bike, he wondered if, for all these years, he had gotten Jason all wrong.

* * *

Having surveyed the command centre of the place they had planned to assault, Jason spoke into the comms.

"Everyone in position?"

"Yep." Roy piped in.

"Yes." Kori declared.

"I am." Artemis affirmed.

"So am I." Talia confirmed.

"Okay. We move in 30 seconds. When the guard with the spare gun reaches the far corner."

Hums of agreement came through the comms, as they all readied themselves for the assault.

The ring (or Scar, same difference) didn't have much information on the people they were liberating, but Roy had done some snooping around the Green Lanterns' mission board and found that the people in this particular town were being exploited by an intergalactic mining corporation. A rescue team sanctioned by the Corps was likely to arrive in a day or two.

Clearly, late-stage capitalism was a universal problem.

Thankfully, this time the enemy could be taken out by simply destroying a single command centre, instead of needing long-form reform efforts through the length and breadth of the political landscape. It felt overly simple, removing the oppression of the ruling class through a violent rampage through three floors of a communication and command centre, but Jason would take the wins he could get with extreme pleasure and gratitude, thank you very much.

He wasn't going to be especially particular about getting an easy victory - after all, this was his chance to do something worthwhile with what he had been given.

Talia, Roy, Kori and Artemis were good for him, but they were... overly optimistic when it came to discussions about what he was doing and what it was worth.

He shook his head, abandoning the unnecessary train of thought. It was time to move.

He dropped down onto the guard below him, who goes down without a sound.

_That's half of the first wave. Good start._

He hears a grunt from Artemis' mic, letting him know that she's taken care of her mark.

Talia and Roy break into the upper level through a side door, and Kori flies up to prepare for a surprise assault through the roof.

_Jason can feel Artemis sneak up to the door on the lower level, can sense the tension in her muscles as she works through the strange lock on the door._

Jason's been done for a while on that front. Having been trained by the Bat himself, he was good at this stuff.

"In position at the south entrance." Artemis said.

"In position at the north, with Talia." Roy added.

"In position near the skylight." Kori declared.

"Good. I'm in position at the south-east entrance." Jason tensed up. "Breach in three."

He felt a pulse of tension run through his companions.

"Two."

He felt another pulse, this time of pure excitement.

"One."

A third pulse, of protective love.

Jason smiled.

"Boom."

* * *

The fight was fierce, yet quick.

Jason had spent his first pair of magazine seven seconds after bursting through the door.

Unwilling to lose time as he reloaded, and needing a way to distract one henchman whose plasma gun was powering up, he threw his pistol at the person's head.

As it sank into what was clearly soft flesh (at least compared to a human head), he wished for his gun to return back to his magazine for him to be able to load it faster.

And almost immediately, his gun rose out of a purple mass of gooey tissue and came hurtling back towards his hand. The grip was coated with a black goo that seemed to be... attracted towards a similar amorphous black blob on his hand.

_What the fuck?_

Before he had time to think, the gun was back in his hand, and his finger and eyes were moving automatically to check if the round was in the chamber. Having reassured himself that it was present, he resumed shooting.

Up above, he could hear the screams of goons being incinerated by Kori and feel Artemis exerting her superhuman strength in swinging Mistress through their foes.

Also, Talia and Roy seemed to be doing pretty well, given the steady thrum of pleasure and satisfaction he could feel from them.

He briefly wondered how he had gotten so good at distinguishing between such complex emotions when he saw a barrage of heavily armed troopers come in. One of them had a plasma gun ready to fire - and he was in no position to watch.

Jason pulled his arms before himself and involuntarily closed his eyes as he braced for a blast to the chest, but it never came.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the beam being blocked by a shapeless wall of black coming from his ring.

As the blast died down, his impromptu shield disintegrated, and before he could think further about _a fucking shield sprouting from his hand_ , his arms were already readying up to shoot.

Unfortunately, these bullets seemed to do no real damage to these guys.

As his gun ran out and he failed to leave the last round in the chamber, a part of his mind concluded that he needed more powerful bullets - preferably something along the lines of the depleted-uranium shells on the sniper rifle Slade had gifted him on his last birthday.

And before his gun had the time to lock on empty, it was firing another round, that went and pierced right through the closest armoured opponent's shoulder, throwing them back a few feet as the rest recoiled in surprise.

And before either of them could process what had happened, he fired another round.

And then another.

And another.

And another.

Soon, all the enemies were down, and his brain caught up with the _magical bullets appearing in his gun_ and his heart rate went through the roof.

When he looked into the chamber, he saw a strangely shaped black bullet fading into smoke.

_Okay... this is fucking nuts._

He ran past the pile of groaning bodies, into the central room that managed the containment of the subjugated townspeople. Roy was already releasing all of them from containment, and Kori was directing the ship to broadcast a somewhat poorly translated message to offer comfort and encourage discipline and calm, rational behaviour in this time of crisis.

Talia was standing guard at one of the unopened doors, with Artemis at the other.

"Yep, we got them. Hacked their system, marked this planet as a waste of resources due to personnel lost in unforgiving environments. Considering that it's barely a rounding error on their quarterly profits, I doubt they'll notice, since they don't have other stations on this planet."

"That's good." Jason felt relieved.

And then, to top off the day's surprises, a troop of even more absurdly armoured gunmen poured in through the broken skylight.

Talia, Artemis and Roy were exposed.

_Fuck._

Before anyone could move an inch, his arms moved to his half-empty pouch of Batarangs. He had three of them, they were bound to do something, right?

They didn't.

As they hit the armoured soldiers, they bounced off with minimal damage.

_Shit. It needs to be sharp._

_As sharp as_ that _one._

And as his arm came back on reflex to the empty pouch, it grabbed a Batarang that was a bit... different.

It was an older design, one that Bruce hadn't produced in years.

It went through them like butter.

Before Artemis had managed to get into an attacking posture, they were all down. Either by shots to the chest, the hands, the legs, or the neck.

They all relaxed, a bit, but then they turned to Jason.

As Jason pulled out one of the four Batarangs he had conjured into existence inside his pocket, he observed them closely.

Each one seemed to be stained with dried blood.

Looking up at his companions, he saw a slate of worried expressions.

"Eh... Can we skip this discussion?"

From the looks on their faces, apparently he couldn't.

* * *

"Grandfather."

"Damian. It is good to see you."

Damian was, to put it mildly, completely confused.

_Grandfather never uses accommodations like these._

"I am... trying out a more humble lifestyle. Your brother... approves of that kind of behaviour."

Unbelievable.

If Grandfather's words were true, this would mean that he had put more effort into appeasing Todd than any of his numerous concubines over the centuries.

Even Talia's mother, his grandmother, had not merited that kind of attention.

"What is your purpose here, my heir?"

"I am not your heir." Damian gritted out.

He might have been at one point, but he was no longer the Heir to the Demon. He might still be Ibn al Xu'ffasch, the Son of the Bat, but he does not belong to Ra's any more.

"Well, unless things go very, very wrong, you shall be my heir."

Ra's tilted his head in a contemplative gesture.

"Well... very, very wrong or _very, very right_.

"I presume that has something to do with Todd?"

Ra's laughed.

"The last time I checked, Jason lacks the requisite... _parts_ for that. Maybe in another universe, but not this one."

"Then what is your plan for him?"

"For now, it is to have him around."

"That cannot be the extent of it."

"It is not. I have other measures I plan to adopt given how events unfold in the future, but I am unable to divulge those details to you now."

"Unable or unwilling?"

"Unable. I cannot speak of plans that do not exist yet."

Well, that was a failed line of questioning. Damian needed to try something else.

"How long have you... been with him?"

"Either eight years or three, depending on what your definition is."

"And what would either definition entail?"

"If by 'being together' you are referring to our current arrangement, then I will be able to tell you that it began slightly over three years ago. The day was March 14th if I recall it correctly. Your beloved brother came to me with a proposal to secure your position in Gotham as well as your mother's security, in exchange for his service as my tool. And my tools do whatever I want them to. Willingly, at that. I can be persuasive."

"You coerced him."

"Hardly. He agreed to every sexual encounter I have had with him."

"Enough. We shall cease this pointless conversation." Damian was done with today's episode of _Daily Dose of the Sex Life of Ra's al Ghul_ , thank you very much.

"Bot, I cannot coerce Jason into anything. I've never been able to do it, and that has been one of my most... vexing trials."

Damian swallowed. He didn't really want to know what that entailed.

"I tried to subdue him when he was an enraged student of the League. I failed. Every. Single. Time."

Ra's laughed.

"Looking back, it is ridiculous how I assumed that I would be able to achieve anything with a soul that stubborn. Still, the boy is an excellent partner, both on the streets and between the sheets

Damian was thoroughly disgusted, and going by Father's breathing pattern, he wasn't doing well either.

"I'm afraid it is time to leave. I am tired of your nonsense."

As he left the dingy room, Ra's laugh echoed in his ear.

* * *

As Guy Gardner descended on the populace of Winnebago, he noticed a conspicuous lack of oppressive miners.

Normally, that would be a cue to investigate, by going closer, but he had an inkling this case wouldn't be that hard to piece together.

Given that the command centres were all disabled or in standby mode, that the jubilant population was flooding the streets. and that Koriand'r had parked her Tamaranean royal vehicle on top of the town as a loudspeaker, he could guess who was responsible.

As much as he hated judging people by their reputation in the League, he zoned out while doing the interviews in the town. He could get real answers from the Outlaws, as soon as he got to their ship.

By the time he had gotten on board, it was late at night, at least on the planet they were on.

Jason was done serving the plates for the other Outlaws when he got on board.

They all smiled at him, and Roy even beckoned him to the table. He accepted gratefully.

Jason's smile was a lot more forced

He decided to ignore it and eat first.

* * *

Conversation flowed freely, and Guy could almost ignore the dire circumstances.

Jason was slightly on edge all throughout dinner. This made Guy nervous too.

When they were done, Guy prepared himself to get down to business.

They pre-empted it. Or rather, Jason did.

He raised his right hand, which was carrying a ring.

A Black Lantern ring.

Guys' breath caught in his chest for a second. Before it returned to normal, Jason had raised his other hand in surrender.

When his voice came back, it betrayed his confusion.

"What?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was unable to write over the weekend since Diwali and Bhai Duj swallowed those... I was at my maternal grandparents' place, a house that is occupied by my mother's two brothers and their families, which includes a hyperactive kid that made writing impossible.


	4. A New Ally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason talks to Hal and Guy. They make plans accordingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't have much of a plan for this chapter, since I needed to lay the groundwork for future interactions with Guy and Hal. Also, I really want to try my hand at writing Kyle.

Guy Gardner was, to put it mildly, very concerned.

Firstly, he had not expected to encounter a Black Lantern now that Blackest Night was behind them.

Secondly, he had not expected to encounter someone from the hero community as a Black Lantern.

Thirdly, he had not expected said Black Lantern to be Red Hood, the wayward Bat who had a reputation for being, frankly, insane.

Fourthly, he had not expected Red Hood to be accompanied by Starfire, Arsenal, an Amazon, and an assassin lady who looked like she was important.

Fifth(ly? Was that even a word?), he had not expected to have said Black Lantern surrender to him.

None of this made any sense.

And before he could even react to the madness, it got worse.

"Yeah, Jaybird, we're not letting you do that." Roy hissed out.

"For once, I wholeheartedly agree." Koriand'r added.

Despite this, Jason seemed insistent on surrendering. However, why he wanted to do that was still a mystery.

The young man's voice sounded tired. "No point fighting him, guys. The corps will come if he gets hurt, and we can't really run forever."

"The hell we can't. We're the Outlaws." Roy retorted angrily.

The assassin lady followed up immediately. "If security is what you need, Habibi, all you need to do is ask."

Jason waved his hand dismissively. "No point, T. Even if you were to ally with Ra's, it wouldn't last forever. Let's get this over with." His wrists returned to that submissive position, and Guy wanted to slap them away.

He wasn't ready to do this.

Guy finally managed to get his voice working again.

"Look, I'm not going to just arrest you for being a Black Lantern."

"Why not?" Yeah, Jason's enquiry was pretty fair, but Guy didn't like the assumption of hostility and close-mindedness that came with it.

"You've shown that you can control yourself while having it on. That means that you're not a threat."

"I would assume that me being the Red Hood would overturn any of those objections."

"We don't judge people for crimes they are yet to commit."

That gets a strange reaction from the group. Jason raised his eyebrows in amusement, while the other members looked _pissed_.

Guy felt a swell of pity rise in him - Jason had probably never received the benefit of the doubt in that fashion before.

"Look, you freed an entire slave town by yourself. I'm sure that deserves some consideration. At least for a while."

Jason cocked his head to the side, and then looked right at him.

No, not _at_ him. He was looking at his... chest?

He watched the boy's eyes flit around his frame, as the confusion rose.

"Okay."

"What was that?" Guy hated how his voice had gone a few octaves higher with the confusion.

"In short... I can see what you feel. In terms of the emotional spectrum."

"How do you know about the emotional spectrum?"

He was just a random vigilante on Earth, how did he get to know about all this stuff?

Jason looked unimpressed.

"Firstly, I'm a bat. Secondly, it's obvious. Thirdly, nearly all of us are pretty close friends with Kyle."

Okay, that made sense.

"So, I guess you're not arresting me?"

"No." He wasn't going to rush into this. Green Lanterns were headstrong, not stupid.

"Okay, that's pretty good. I could use some expert advice on this thing if you don't mind."

"No, I don't." He would always help people who needed him. That was the point of being a superhero, wasn't it?

"I guess we should probably head to Ooa or Oa or Ooooa, or whatever that home planet of yours is called."

Guy nodded blankly. In the back of his mind, he knew it was the logical course of action, but he was unable to actually do much logical thought at the moment.

Jason got up and beckoned to Guy, in a clear indication to follow him.

_Well, I guess that's where I'm going._

Trying to not look back at the four pairs of eyes boring into his soul, he followed the young Black Lantern into some other part of the ship.

* * *

Hal was, to put it mildly, freaking out.

Guy had left for a mission on Vrogal barely a while ago, and had called back within a few hours of his departure with a vague report about how 'the problem had already been handled' and 'the situation is complicated'.

Which was essentially an admission of his inability to understand what had happened.

He had said that he was returning with important information, though. At least they had that.

A message came through on his ring. He grunted to signal the ring to open it.

_Shit, I'm becoming more and more like Spooks here._

The message popped up in a tiny hologram, showing Guy in a... bunk bed?

"Hi Hal. This is a warning that I'm returning with some company. The non-hostile variety. However... the people I'm coming with... one guy among them is kinda... strange. Despite first appearances, he's not bad. I promise. So when you see what he has to show... stand down and listen. Please."

_Well, that was a load of cryptic useless bullshit._

As if on cue, a ship appeared out of thin air in the sky above Oa.

Before Hal could move his fists into a defensive position, a message was broadcast to all rings in the area.

"Sorry guys, official Green Lantern Corps member here, sorry about the ship, my bad, I'll have happy hours last all day on Warriors for the rest of the month."

With the last offer, most people calmed down and guided the ship towards an impromptu landing pad.

Apparently Guy's bar was popular enough for that to be effective. Who knew.

The ship descended onto the pad, and the hatch on the port side opened.

Guy Gardner came out, arms raised and looking sheepish.

After him, came Roy Harper, Princess Koriand'r, a lady who looked like she was an Amazon, another lady who looked human, but still had a threatening vibe to her, and...

_Oh fuck._

_That's Jason Todd._

* * *

Guy could feel the hair on his skin rising as he took a seat.

Hal was sitting next to him, carrying a set of papers. Jason sat before the, handcuffed and without a ring.

Said ring was deposited in a containment box next to them, on the table. A bit risky, but Hal had thought it was worth it, to check if the ring was influencing Jason.

This was getting too close to a 'good cop, bad cop' routine, which was definitely _not_ what Guy wanted out of this.

However, the nervousness on Hal's face was only rivalled by the determination present alongside it.

The longest-serving human Lantern began with the questions.

"When did you first encounter the ring?"

"A week or two ago, I guess... it gets harder to keep track once you're in space." Jason didn't sound angry, which was a good sign.

"And what happened when you saw it?"

"I said no thanks, and Scar tried to convince me to keep the ring."

"Why didn't you contact the Justice League?"

"Because the Outlaws aren't really on good terms with the Justice League and its associated subsidiaries."

"And why did you hold onto the ring?"

"Because I thought I could use it."

"Use it for what?"

"To do some good."

"You don't seem to be the type that's concerned with doing good."

Guy had expected an angry outburst, but all he got was a resigned shrug.

"Why did you hold onto the ring, Jason?"

"I thought I could use it to help people."

 _Yeah, time to step in here._ "Jason, you need to see it from our side." Guy tried to make sure he sounded friendly. "You're a guy with a reputation for... volatility. And you get a ring that fuels itself by extracting the emotional surge from dying Lanterns. From our perspective, that's a concerning thing."

"I understand, Guy." Jason's voice was oddly calm. "From what I've been told, the ring operates off of me, not a power battery like the other Lantern rings."

"What does that mean?" Hal queried.

"The ring uses my body as a power source."

"How does that work?"

"I believe I can supply that information." Guy jumped and was secretly glad to see that Hal had done the same. Jason merely turned towards the boxed-up ring, which was now projecting onto the interior of the box.

"Scar." Hal hissed.

"We meet again, Hal Jordan."

"We destroyed you."

"And here I am. A mystery, is it not? However, it is an unimportant one."

"Why? You could be trying to turn Jason here into the next Black Hand."

"Sadly, I lack the resources or desire to wage another war on your kind. The living seem to be intent on protesting death."

"Of course we are intent on protesting death, nobody wants to die!"

"I shall ignore the numerous problems with that statement, and move on to the point - I do not wish to engage you in combat. It is a worthless exercise, and in the end, death will come for you all."

"In all her emo goth glory. Complete with a half-shaved head, pixie haircut, pale skin and a t-shirt for a death metal band, because subtlety is dead." Jason added.

"Wait what?" Guy couldn't help himself, the words slipped out too easily.

"Yeah, that's what death looks like." Jason sounded amused, but it didn't seem like he was joking.

"No, Nekron embodies death, right? Like Ion embodies willpower, Parallax embodies fear or Predator embodies love?"

"Yes, you are correct." Scar replied. "But they merely embody a reduced version of the idea. What Jason speaks of, is a version that is not limited by our world. One that is endless."

Jason snorted and shook his head. "Cheap joke. I hate myself for laughing at it."

Scar smiled. "Jason has met the true Death. The sister of Destiny, one of the seven siblings that have been there since the beginning of forever."

"That's not important." Hal growled out. "How does the ring work?"

"It uses the bonds Jason has with other people as a conduit for... fuel. Their capacity to feel for him makes him stronger."

"And how does he know how to use it so well?"

"The major constraint in using a ring is learning how to tap into the chain of power. As a Green Lantern, you channel your will. As a Black Lantern, Jason needs to realize an emotional void inside him. Something he was already qualified for before he obtained the ring."

"What does that even mean?"

"Jason is... used to using himself as a conduit for emotional outflow. If you need a better description as to why and how you might ask him. He is right there, after all."

Hal turned to Jason, at the same time as Guy.

He looked... sad.

* * *

Hal knows he should probably not feel sympathy for a criminal like the Red Hood, but he can't help but feel pity for Jason when he notices the expression on his face.

He lowered his voice and softened his tone, in an attempt to make himself sound kinder.

"Mind explaining that, Jason?"

Jason remained silent.

"Jason?"

"I'd rather not."

"Why?"

"It's a private matter."

"A private matter that made you the best candidate for the Black Lantern ring. You can see why we're kinda worried, right?"

"Yeah. I can. Doesn't mean I'm ready to talk about it."

"Anything you can tell me is fine. We have time. You're not a threat at the moment, you're an ally. One who has proven himself capable of controlling a ring pretty well."

Hal looked to Guy, who nodded in approval.

_Good. I haven't fucked this up yet._

"I wasn't doing much controlling. I thought about what I needed in a fight, and it just... appeared."

"That's... not normal."

"As I told you, he is used to being in the emotional state required to operate the ring." Scar sounded bored.

"That doesn't explain anything."

"No? Then I shall put it in simpler terms - the rings you wear draw on Ion's power, with you as the conduit. For Jason, he is, in a sense, both the source of the power and the means by which it is effected. Normally, a human would not have the power to live with that kind of a sink drawing off their emotional capacity, but Jason here is... special."

Jason laughed, but the sound was cold and grating.

"You make it sound like it's a good thing."

"Jason. If someone is treating you poorly, you can tell us. We can make sure it doesn't happen again."

All he got in reply was another humourless laugh.

Before Hal could press further, Guy butted into the conversation.

"That's fine, Jason. As stated before, you don't have to talk to us. As far as we can tell, you are not a threat at the moment, and we trust that your teammates will keep you safe."

Jason calmed down visibly, relaxing into his seat.

Hal glared at Guy, but the latter merely glared back.

The junior Lantern (only in comparison now, but Hal would play that card till the end of his days) got up and uncuffed Jason, and pushed a few buttons on the protective case. It shrank into a smaller form, one that would fit into a jacket pocket.

Guy handed the box over and led Jason to the door.

Jason was asking something about where his partners were (with an unusual hesitation around the word partners, for some reason), and Guy pointed towards the North-facing corridor. The young, freshly-minted Lantern walked away in that direction, leaving Hal and Guy alone in front of the interrogation room.

"Why did you let him go?"

"Because we don't want to re-traumatize him."

"Re-traumatize him - what the fuck do you mean Gardner?"

"That the boy has been in an abusive relationship of some sort. One that was bad enough for him to get used to having an emotional void inside him that could power a Black Lantern ring."

"You do know how ridiculous that sounds, right?."

"Yeah, but I don't think Scar or Jason are lying."

"Why is that?"

"Did you look at him? He was curling up into a ball here. What's worse, he surrendered willingly to me, and Roy was the one who objected to it."

_Okay, that was a good sign._

Or was it a bad sign? Hal didn't know anymore.

"Guy, you're being awfully trusting here."

"Look, Hal, I just got a feeling, okay? I think Jason's not a bad guy. He needs help."

To some extent, Hal could agree. Jason did need help.

They didn't really have the tools to provide it, though.

It wasn't the heroic thing to do, but they all had limitations.

"Hal?"

"Look, we need to be prepared for the worst here-"

"Hal. This is different. Now that Blackest Night has happened, the Corps has made precautions to protect against it. What's worse, the big Bat has done the same."

"And who better to hide from the Bat than his wayward son?"

"Literally anyone else. Mostly because he's likely to be the one under the heaviest surveillance."

 _He has a point_ , Hal conceded.

"Look, I think we need to look into this."

"Why? He's a Bat. Let Spooky deal with it." That would be way better, at least for them.

"He's also a Lantern now. The only member of his corps, at that. And there isn't much of a good precedent for him."

"Yeah, but neither of us know him well enough to be able to start that conversation. You know how prickly Bats can be."

"Luckily, we do have someone who may be able to get past that."

"Who?"

"Kyle."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought it would be appropriate to have Guy and Hal be trusting and permissive because they want to believe the best of Jason, as a contrast to the Bats. Guy, as I have written him here, is mainly going off a gut feel that Jason is good - I just want to write a Bat story without the usual overdose of mistrust and intrigue on the people who are, to some extent, the good guys.
> 
> This is the first story for which I have the end planned out in so much detail, with nearly no idea about how to get there... at least with my other stuff I know the broad strokes of what path I want to take, but here, all I have is a couple of scenes in the final chapter and the desire to get there.


	5. Black and White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The White and Black Lantern are pushed towards each other. Jason and Kyle decide to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write the White Lantern and Black Lantern meeting without having it be about their rings and their Lantern status. Thus, here we are.

Kyle groaned at the piercing sound that set off a pounding headache.

As he slowly opened his eyes, he noticed a green glow filling the room, originating from the ring on his hand.

_Please, let me sleep._

The ringing ended, and the glow faded out, and the beleaguered White Lantern sank back into his comfy bed.

Okay, it wasn't all that comfy, but compared to the military cots on Oa, it was definitely an improvement.

But before he could go back to dreaming, the glow returned with renewed vigour. As did the accursed ringing.

_Please. Stop._

It did not stop.

_Fine. Be that way._

He pushed himself into a sitting position, his eyes still shut.

"Ahcshpt chhll."

_Wait. That didn't come out right._

He cleared his throat, and tried again.

"Accept call."

Thankfully, the goddamn fucking ringing stopped. Sadly, it was replaced by Guy's loud, chipper voice.

"Hi Kyle, how're you doin- Oh. Not well, I guess."

"Yeah, no thanks to you."

"Yeah, about that... we, uh... might need you to, um, come to Oa right now."

That woke Kyle up. "What?"

"Yeah, there's sort of an emergency?"

"Considering how unsure you sounded, is it really?"

"Umm, we're not sure if it's an emergency per se, but we do need you to come ASAP. You see, it's about Ja-"

Kyle felt the voice blur out into the background as sleep overcame him.

"-ack Lantern. So we - hey Kyle, you listening?"

Kyle snored in response.

"Kyle! Wake up!"

"Huh? Whaddappened?"

Guy dragged a hand across his face, as if this was exasperating for _him_ and not Kyle, the guy who was actually losing precious sleep here.

"Guy?"

"Just come to Oa, Kyle. You'll see when you get here."

"Okay, but you owe me a lifetime of free drinks for this."

"Fine, just get here."

With that, Guy hung up.

_Shit. He didn't even argue it._

This was serious.

Or maybe Guy was just overreacting.

Whatever it was, at least he had secured free drinks. He could lose some sleep for that.

* * *

Jason sat in the corner of the room, trying to control his breathing.

He was _this_ close to freaking the fuck out, and if he had aspirations of remaining a free man, he needed to get his act together.

But ever since he had seen the bonds tying Guy and Hal, he had been absorbed in his thoughts.

He had just... killed people. And just because he hadn't seen the connections they had to others, didn't mean that they didn't exist. And he had been only too glad to see them as monsters who didn't deserve mercy, as long as he wasn't forced to see otherwise.

He knew that this shouldn't have bothered him - after all, he had known that the basic idea held true for all the people he had killed over the years. He had argued with the other Bats over the pointlessness of that particular angle. But now, with a ring on his hand and this strange power to see how people were connected to each other, it felt more... damning.

Maybe it was because he now had the power to see, and had chosen not to.

"I killed them."

The words had spilled from his lips without his permission, but it was... strangely relieving to say it out loud. He couldn't figure out why.

Roy turned to him sharply.

"What happened, Jaybird?"

"The guards at the place we raided. I killed them."

"They were soldiers for a ruthless company that was enslaving people. If anyone deserved to die, they were certainly on the list."

"But... we don't know why any of them were there. If they could-"

"That doesn't matter, Jaybird. We were in the middle of a fight. A deadly fight. It was either you or them."

"But it does, Roy. I have this now. I could have known."

Jason felt his chest constrict painfully.

"I _should_ have known."

"No."

Kori's voice brooked no debate.

"As Roy said, you were fighting for your life. And you did just that. Never blame yourself for merely trying to keep yourself alive."

"But I could have-"

"Did you know how to control the bond stuff you see?" Roy interjected.

"No, but-"

"Then how the fuck is it your fault? You made the call to try and keep yourself alive, and believe me, I will support that decision to hell and back."

"As will I." Kori added.

Artemis decided to join in on the conversation.

"And so shall I."

Jason did not reply. They couldn't understand, they couldn't-

"Little One, you do not need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. That task, you can leave to others. Let them ruin themselves over unachievable goals."

Jason shook his head.

"Habibi."

Jason looked at Talia, whose eyes were boring straight into his soul.

The string connecting them pulsed brighter, and its surface seemed to ripple with waves coming from his mother's side.

"Do you remember what I told you, about what it means to take a life?"

Jason nodded.

"Remind me, if you will."

His tongue was heavy, but he still managed to squeeze it out. "If I would have another do what I have to, then I shall go ahead and do it myself."

She nodded, and he could see the calm confidence in her. He could almost feel it seep into himself.

"So tell me, if it had been me, or Roy, or Kori, or Artemis, stuck in your predicament, would you have held us to the same standards?"

"No, of course not, it's not - oh."

He felt a laugh bubble out of his throat.

"It sounds obvious, now that I've actually said it."

"It always does."

"But... if I couldn't see it before, if it was that easy for me to ignore that stuff for the sake of staying alive... should I even have this on me?"

"Trying to keep yourself alive doesn't make you any less of a hero, Jaybird." Roy sounded adamant about that. "Neither does it make you any less self-sacrificing."

Jason smiled.

He almost had a witty reply for his boyfriend, but at that moment, he felt what he could only describe as... a surge of emotion.

Not the metaphorical kind, where people talk about one specific emotion or another as per the context the writer intended but didn't spell out because that would be bad writing (for some reason). But rather, a surge that came through his skin into his body from the air itself, as if he was standing under a midday sun.

In a sense, that was probably an accurate description.

Yeah, this was probably something that he had to deal with.

He stood up.

"Jason, you look perturbed." Kori observed.

"Someone's here." He knew he was devolving into Bat-like terse responses, which he hated, but it was a habit at this point.

"Who?"

"I don't know, I'm here!"

"And yet you knew that someone was here, which is more than what we could divine." Artemis pointed out. "Surely you understand our... queries."

"I don't know who it is, but whoever they are, they're leaking a lot of emotion into the surroundings. Which means that it probably concerns me, at least tangentially."

Roy slowly massaged his forehead, as if he was debating his life choices.

"What the hell, Roy?"

"You know what, Jaybird, I liked it better when you had fewer reasons to be incomprehensible."

* * *

When Kyle landed on Oa, he knew something was wrong.

First of all, Hal was waiting to receive him.

Hal had _never_ bothered with that before, even when he was trying his hardest to coax the struggling artist to come to Oa instead of rotting in his shitty New York apartment, struggling with the soul-crushing reality of being a struggling artist rotting in a shitty New York apartment.

Second, Guy was there with him.

Guy would not be wasting time with greeting people even in an emergency.

This was bad.

As soon as he is within hearing range of them, he pops the all-important question.

"What's wrong? And how bad is it?"

Strangely enough, he was met with... confusion?

_What happened here?_

The two of them looked at each other as if trying to get the other to speak.

Finally, Hal gave in and responded.

"Um... we don't know? To both questions."

Kyle raised his eyebrow.

Guy sighed, and decided to take over.

"It's a delicate situation. We need someone capable of responding to the greatest possible threat and treating them with compassion and kindness. Failing that, at least without unnecessary judgement."

Kyle felt uneasy at that... compliment? Was that what it was?

Guy's expression was unreadable, so he voiced his concerns out loud.

"I'm getting the feeling that you're trying to compliment me to make me agree."

"I am. But I'm serious. We need you because you're a White Lantern. And we also need you because you're a good man, Kyle. We trust you to be able to put the snap judgements aside for a while and help us regain control of the situation."

"...Okay. I'm in."

"You need to be sure, Kyle." Guy's voice was unnaturally serious. (No, Kyle was not putting Guy into the stereotypical reckless happy-go-lucky Lantern box that most outsiders seemed to use for him, but rather acknowledging that Guy was ordinarily a pretty cheerful guy - no pun intended - and his demeanour did not bode well for him.) "It's not going to be easy, in more ways than one. I need to know that you're not going to make rash decisions."

"...I understand. I'm in."

They clearly needed him. He couldn't just refuse.

Guy looked at Hal with an unspoken question on his face, which Hal answered with a nod in the affirmative. They both beckoned Kyle towards one of the secure areas they had for high-profile guests who also needed to be... observed during their stay and secured if necessary.

They went to one of the larger rooms, and Kyle could hear voices through the door. They were dimly familiar, but Kyle couldn't really place them.

Guy raised his hand to a switch on the right side of the door, and Kyle heard a bell ring inside. The voices die down, and Guy announces himself.

"It's Guy."

"We know." One of the voices replies. "Come in, and bring whoever you've brought with you."

Kyle brings up the obvious question.

"Did they know I was coming?"

Guy drags a palm across his face. "No, but I can guess why they know. Come in, it's going to be easier to show you than explain why."

The door was opened, and the three of them walked in.

And Kyle was greeted by a sight he couldn't have conceived in his wildest dreams.

To one side, was Princess Koriand'r, her hair burning bright as she stared at him, trying to appear relaxed while still tensing up for a fight. Beside her, stood an Amazon, who looked like what Diana or Donna would have if they had tailored their appearance on the 'dark and edgy' philosophical movement. On the other side, a woman in assassin clothes was polishing a sword that looked a lot like the one used by the current Robin - shit, that was the kid's mom, wasn't it?

One of them would have spelt trouble, all three of them... this was a nightmare.

 _Oh fuck, that's Roy_ fucking _Harper, tinkering away at some circuit board over there, and they're all surrounding-_

Kyle felt his blood freeze.

_That's Jason Todd._

"What the fuck?"

Kyle could notice Guy and Hal freeze up and try to work out who they needed to placate first, but his eyes remained fixed on the wayward Bat in the room.

Before anyone else could react, Jason spoke.

"Nice to see you, Kyle."

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

In response, Jason raised his right hand and showed-

_Oh no._

_That's a Black Lantern ring._

Before anyone could react, Kyle's ring began to glow.

* * *

It took Jason an embarrassingly short amount of time to subdue Kyle.

The rogue Bat hadn't even needed his ring to subdue Kyle - he had just charged up, locked his arm behind him and pinched a spot in his inner elbow to completely break his focus.

Thankfully, the other Lanterns and Jason's companions had left the room to them, allowing him to be ashamed in private.

Kyle needed to improve his fighting skills a _lot_ , now that they had a Lantern who had the physical capabilities of one of the Bats. They were all hopelessly outclassed in comparison.

Kyle could still feel his ears tingling in shame, as he sat before the ex-Robin and listened to him narrate his story of how he had come to possess the ring.

Despite the raging maelstrom of thoughts, he decided to pay close attention to Jason's story. It was the least he could do, having ignored his own promise to Guy and Hal and jumped to conclusions.

He was aware that Jason was still not telling him the whole story, though. He hadn't mentioned exactly what had led to him trying to flee Gotham, and why he had decided to take up Lantern duties in service of Scar.

Still, in his experience, it wasn't a wise idea to press Jason on subjects he didn't want to talk about. He decided to ease into it instead.

"So... the ring is running off of you because you're used to being drained of emotional capacity, and so far you have gained the power to construct minor structures like bullets and see... _bonds between people_?"

Jason shrugged. "Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's the truth. Although I don't think I can _construct_ anything consciously. It just... makes itself when I need it, so far."

"Well, I'll be honest, I don't see how I can help you with anything except training for advanced constructs. And even then, it's probably going to be absurdly dodgy, since I still don't understand why the ring functions the way it does."

"Well, aren't I on the planet of the Green Lantern Corps? Can't they figure something out? You've got these Guardian people for this variety of Lantern too, right?"

"To be honest, I don't think the Guardians for any of the other Corps will be much help."

"Then what would?"

"Knowing what you think is letting you successfully control the ring."

"...I told you, Scar said she thinks I'm accustomed to being emotionally drained."

"I'm guessing you also know why, but you're not telling."

Jason didn't reply.

"Look, I can't help you if you won't talk to me."

"Then I guess you'll have to arrest me."

Kyle raised an eyebrow at that. "You, Jason Todd, the Red Hood, the scourge of Batman, the defender of Crime Alley, the man who has come back from the dead, will just let himself get arrested?"

"Yes. No point fighting."

A part of Kyle's mind wanted to feel relief at that statement and failed. The other part knew that this was a _bad_ sign, and the danger signal was blaring loud and clear.

Having the only Black Lantern in the universe be that pliant would make him easy prey for anyone who wanted to manipulate him, which was something they couldn't afford given the man's capabilities as a mere human, let alone as a Lantern.

And more importantly, Kyle's instincts kept screaming to him that whatever had happened to Jason was _wrong_ , and needed to be set right.

He'd have to talk to Guy about this - after all, the ring had chosen Jason because he was capable of being drained of emotion to the point that it could power a ring. That metaphor was way too obvious to ignore.

"We'll help you figure it out."

"Huh, sounds like you're talking about therapy or some shit."

"You sure you want to look down on Guy like that?"

"Of course not. Therapists are awesome. It's just... not for me."

Yeah, that was probably a sign that it was _exactly_ what Jason needed.

Kyle decided to leave it be for now. They could get to that later.

"I don't think I have anything else I need to ask, so mind staying here while I go talk to the other guys?"

Jason shook his head. "Go ahead with the sneaky plotting, Rayner."

Kyle frowned, but his amusement was clearly broadcasted by his eyes.

Jason replied with a wide, shit-eating grin.

Shaking his head, Kyle left the room, and headed for the one that held the other people who knew of the crisis they were in right now.

As he entered, he heard Hal and Robin's mother stop arguing about something, and turn to him.

The others were also staring right into his soul, and that was _not_ helping.

"I think I can work with him, train him to use the ring."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Can anyone explain what happened? Because I don't think this came from nowhere."

Hal's expression fell, as did Guy's.

Jason's companions, though... they were _pissed_.

Kyle looked at Roy, he was most likely the reasonable guy here.

Apparently not reasonable enough to bother cooperating.

Guy was the one who spoke, finally.

"We think... Jason has been, um, mistreated. Badly."

Roy snorts. "That's an understatement if I've ever heard one."

Kyle didn't really see what the issue was here.

"So we just go and get the guy who fucked with him, right?"

Roy let out a downright malicious chuckle at that, and it made Kyle's blood run cold.

"Yeah, you're not doing that."

"Look, I know we might give the impression that we're stupid idiots who go around in green tights, but we're not exactly incompetent. And we're definitely not unwilling or indecisive."

"Yeah? Then I dare you fuckers to go and put Batman in chains."

Kyle stumbled back at that thought. "What the fuck?"

"Yeah, lost the bluster, right? Thought so."

Kyle turned to Guy for help.

Unfortunately, Guy's expression made it clear that he wasn't going to be much use.

"Guy?"

Guy did not respond.

Kyle took a deep breath and steeled himself.

"Never mind. I'm not bothered with the details there. I'll train Jason, starting tomorrow morning."

Hal woke up with that declaration. "Kyle, you-"

"Can and will do just that. I'm a struggling artist from New York, the best I can do apart from training Jason is to support him however possible for me."

Kyle looked straight at Guy.

"You, on the other hand, are an accredited social worker. So I would advise you to do your job because I'm sure Jason could use some professional help on that front."

Guy nodded.

"Good. Now, if you don't mind, can we get Jason to cook something? I would kill for his lasagne."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking this long to update. I've been having trouble pinning down exactly how I want this part of the story to proceed since I don't have a very clear plan for this. I hope this is coherent and compelling enough to tide you over till the next chapter - which will be about Jason learning to use the ring.


	6. Learning to use a Lantern ring in under 100 minutes*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason gets the crash course on using his ring. However, the way his training session goes raises more troubling questions for Kyle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write an interesting training session for Jason, and delve into how he gets into the right state to use the ring. Hence, this chapter.

Jason stood at the threshold of the large room that was apparently going to be used for his training, as Kyle walked in ahead of him.

The room was _huge_. Really huge.

Normally, Jason would be chiding himself for letting his vocabulary default to such weak adjectives, but this place was awesome.

Sue him.

It didn't look like any other training arena he had ever seen. There were no obvious warm-up spaces, no lines of training mats, no weights, no lockers.

Instead, it seemed to be built with concepts drawn from tools people use for training, modelled into a completely new form.

In one random spot of the room, there was a pole with arm-like extensions that resembled a _mu ren zhuang_ , but the arms themselves had joints and were probably extensively mobile. Jason was looking forward to using it.

In an alcove to his right, a line of robots were hanging off what looked like a clothesline, their feet inches off the ground. They looked like they were on the verge of falling off and collapsing, but they remained in place.

At the farthest end of the room, to the left, stood a giant box. All Jason could tell was that it was absolutely unremarkable and did not need to be looked at. He could look away immediately.

And at the centre of the room, stood the lone training mat, which was still surrounded by a ring of lights to bring it up to the room's minimum weirdness level standards.

Kyle headed straight for that central ring, as Jason tried to understand what half the stuff in the room was for.

There was little in the way of physical training for building up muscle mass, but there were a bunch of treadmills and exercise bikes along with other strange equipment that was probably for stamina-building exercises. Which made sense given that Lanterns were dependent on just their emotional capacity and their endurance.

But Kyle didn't seem interested in any of that. He was sitting on a circular mat, in the middle of the place, waiting for his student to join him.

_Speaking of which, I should probably go and join my teacher._

He walked up to the mat, crossing over the ring of lights that looked like LEDs but were probably some weird alien tech thing that Roy would definitely want to look into.

He sat down, facing Kyle, and waited for his teacher to start.

"So, now that you're done sightseeing, we should probably try and figure out what makes your ring tick."

"And how are we going to go about that?"

"We're going to try and replicate your mental state at the time."

"Okay, so you do know that I am more than a match for you without the ring?"

"Normally, I would summon a to-scale version of Godzilla in retaliation for an insult like that, but I have a feeling that you Bats have a plan for everything."

Jason felt his smile fall away at that, almost involuntarily.

Before Kyle could add a word, he decided to nip that discussion in the bud.

"I'm not a Bat. And I'd appreciate it if you don't bring it up again."

"...Sure." Jason could see the doubt and unasked questions straining even more, but thankfully, Kyle let it go.

"Thanks. Now, you were saying?"

"Yes." Kyle cleared his throat, like a professor lecturing to a class. "For Lanterns on the emotional spectrum, our rings are activated by us letting ourselves feel a certain emotion, and the ring using that as a catalyst for converting its energy into the constructs that our minds think up."

Jason nodded, encouraging his newly minted mentor to proceed.

"When I want to summon a construct of will, I summon my courage, and it allows me to use the power of the battery to create... this."

A green infinite staircase floats between the two of them, its light supplemented by the green that comes pouring out of Kyle, down the tiny string connecting them, into Jason.

"When I want a construct of fear, I feel my own, and that gives rise to-"

The yellow light from the pen replaced the green glow from before, and Jason felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise from feeling the fear pouring into him. Only his years of experience with fear toxin and the Pit in his blood kept him from jumping.

"If I want a construct of love, I conjure it with the love inside of me."

Jason felt his heart swell like it did when Roy did something romantic, as the violet construct cast its soft light on the two of them.

"And if I want to use my rage, then-"

He burped and breathed a deeply red fire.

Jason was, for a small moment, completely frozen. Then, he raised his hands threateningly.

"You fucking _heathen_."

"Wha-"

"Apologize, or I will never associate with you ever again."

"Why do I need-"

" _Now_."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Kyle raised his arms in supplication for good measure.

Jason narrowed his eyes but settled back down.

"Okay, so what's all this supposed to mean?"

"Well, it means that you need to summon the mental state associated with the ring to be able to use it."

"Okay, so what is the mental state you think is associated with this thingamajig on my hand?"

"That's it. We don't know."

Jason scoffed. "Okay, so all this was to show that you don't know anything that could be useful to me?"

Kyle shook his head. "No, it was supposed to indicate that we would need to do a lot of guesswork to find out how you were able to use the ring. We would have to go over every emotion you had during the fight to know what triggered the ring."

"In case you haven't seen it already in our universe-hopping adventure, I'm not trying to get in touch with my feeling in the middle of a fight for my life."

"Yeah, that's not confined to fighting for your life either."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That normally, you Bats would be unable to use a ring because you block out your emotions at pretty much all times."

"First, I'm not a Bat, I already told you." Jason feels Kyle flinch, as their bond sags, tinged with a deep blood red. "Second, considering that I'm in a committed relationship with three other people, I think I am doing pretty well on the 'being in touch with your emotions' front."

"Uh-"

"So you need a better theory, and fast."

"Okay, so do you remember any odd spots of emotion during-"

"No, I don't."

"Are you sure?"

"Considering that I've been trained to think and feel nothing in the middle of a fight under pain of torture from some of the cruellest teachers in the world, I think I would know if I felt something odd in the middle of a fight. To top it off, there was no reason for me to feel anything in the middle of the fight."

Kyle's expression became thoughtful.

"Rayner?"

"That might explain it."

"Could you put your Lantern side away and _please_ make a bit more sense than that?"

"Hey, we're not _all_ stupid!"

"But you certainly are being the same brand of stupid that Hal breathes nearly all the time. So take a second to think, and then _speak_."

Kyle did exactly that.

Jason could feel himself preparing for the worst even though he had no idea what that even meant.

" _Rayner_."

"I think you ring works when you're not allowing yourself to feel anything."

There was a second of silence, as Jason took it in.

"Please-"

" _What. The. Fuck._ "

"-Don't take this the bad way-"

"Like hell I won't. I didn't take you for that kind of an asshole, Rayner."

"No, Jason, please listen-"

"I thought you were actually trying to teach me something here. Guess I was a fool to expect you guys to be reasonable and look at me like a fellow human being."

"Fucking _listen_ to me!"

Jason flinched back at the yell.

I didn't mean to insult you. I just wanted to say... the ring is probably responding to the lack of emotion."

"You still meant to say that the state resembles a dead person."

"...Yeah, I did. I'm sorry. But I didn't mean to insult you."

"Am I supposed to take it as a compliment, then? That you think I'm a good murderer because I didn't feel anything for the people I was killing?"

"You might not be a cold-blooded murderer, but I think you're a good soldier, at the very least."

Jason couldn't help but laugh at that.

Kyle frowned. "Jason? What happened?"

Jason kept laughing as his eyes lost focus. He couldn't help it.

"Jason? I'm sorry if I said something wrong. Please, tell me, are you-"

"Of course _that's_ what you call me."

"I'm really sorry-"

"That's all I ever am, isn't it? A good soldier?"

Kyle didn't reply, confusion and apprehension clouding his face.

"I'm just supposed to be a mindless killing machine, which is why I'm stuck with a ring of death. Wow, the universe didn't feel it was done kicking me in the balls, did it?"

Jason got up in one fluid motion, and Kyle rose as well to try and stop him. He tried to get a hold of Jason, but the newly minted Lantern avoided the experienced one's flailing hands and grabbed both of them in a fluid motion.

Normally, Jason would have been proud of how well he had pulled that off, but all he could feel was a gaping void in his soul.

"I guess I'm just doomed to be a fucking mistake, aren't I?" He punched at Kyle with his free hand, and despite his rattled state, the hit landed true.

Kyle winced as he tried to get back into a fighting stance. "No Jason, you're not a-"

"Guess it was stupid to try and escape my fate. Should have just stayed down and died and never come back-"

" _Shut up and fucking listen to me!_ "

Jason stilled at that outburst, and an uneasy silence descended on them.

"What are you feeling right now?"

"Nothing apart from the hollowness of a missing soul. Next question please?"

"I guess that might be what allows you to use the ring."

Jason looked up, trying to focus his eyes on the object grasped in his free hand now.

It was a crowbar.

Unlike the constructs Kyle had summoned, it didn't shine. Rather, it seemed to be absorbing the light from its surroundings, while somehow being brighter. It made no sense.

Even worse, it had somehow been conjured from the worst parts of his mind.

"You seem to be summoning them when you are doing nothing but fighting to survive or at least stay safe from people you consider threats."

"And I'm fucked up enough to consider you a threat."

Kyle remained silent as Jason tried to work out what he needed to do next.

"Can I talk to the others before you arrest me?"

That broke Kyle out of his stupor. "No, Jason, we're not arresting you. Why would you think that?"

"Because I attacked you at pretty much no provocation."

"Yeah, I'm not that stupid. You were triggered by what I said, weren't you?"

Jason couldn't really bring himself to reply.

"Look, if you don't want to talk about it with me, you don't need to. But, in the interest of your long-term health, you will need to talk about it with _someone_."

"Yeah, and who is this mythical person again? Dinah can't stand me, and she's a trained therapist."

Kyle grinned. "Well, I think I can offer an alternative."

* * *

"So, how did it go?"

Kyle groaned.

Guy sounded so fucking optimistic that it _hurt_.

"Well, he didn't kill me, and we think we have a handle on how his powers work, but it would take a lot of effort to give him the ability to use his powers outside of a fight."

"And why is that?"

Kyle looked at Jason, who was milling about the kitchen cooking up one of his amazing meals, as Roy and Kori tried to sneak food out of the plates that had already been loaded up.

"Kyle?"

"He needs to not feel any emotion to be able to use the ring. That's what channels his power."

"And?"

"Do you think he should be suppressing his emotions any more than he already is?"

"...No, I don't."

"And I don't think I want to be in charge of training a Lantern just for war."

"But Scar, she said that his ring was powered by him being an emotional sink of some sort."

"Which makes sense - the batteries are essentially sinks for the various entities that power them, aren't they?"

"She also said that he was used to that, to being drained of his emotional capacity."

"Yeah, I don't know what that means, but I guess that's a question for you."

"What?"

"Do you think you could talk to him? As a therapist, or counsellor of some sort? He... when our conversation went south and he went into fight mode, he constructed a crowbar with his ring."

Guy flinched at that. "Yeah, I have to warn you, I'm not trained for intensive long-term therapy as the primary carer."

"Anything you can do for him would be great. Anything at all."

"You're awfully concerned about him given your history."

Kyle shrugged. "I... I was unfair to him, back during our mission with Donna. I want to try and make up for it, do the right thing this time."

"You've grown up, eh?"

Kyle laughed. "He said that too."

They both looked at the man in question, as he batted away the thieving hands in his kitchen.

"I don't know if I can help him, Kyle. I don't know if it's going to be enough."

"It will be, Guy. You're much better at it than you think."

"In my usual cases, we deal with people who feel metaphorically dead inside. This is... this is a lot more _tangible_. A lot harder to deny."

"I don't want you to deny who he is. I'll be honest... given that the ring came to him, I don't think there is a way to heal him. But I believe... he can get somewhere better than before."

"I guess so."

Kyle grinned at the older Lantern, and walked up to the dining table to catch a serving of the crêpes that Jason was serving.

* * *

As Guy pondered over what Kyle had told him, a voice popped into his right ear.

"It is strange to see a Green Lantern giving up."

Guy nearly jumped as he turned to face the speaker, who turned out to be the assassin lady.

Talia al Ghul, the Daughter of the Demon, the child of Ra's al Ghul, the estranged lover of Bruce Wayne, the mother of the current Robin, Damian Wayne, and the adopted mother of Jason Todd, the second Robin, the second Red Hood and currently, the latest Black Lantern.

She didn't look like any of her titles now. Just a concerned mother looking out for her kid.

"I had presumed that you would give a rousing speech about how you would help my son reach a point in his life where he doesn't feel pain anymore."

"Yeah, that's not possible. He's a vigilante, and one operating at a level where he's at least guaranteed to have broken bones once every fortnight."

"And in Gotham, a bi-monthly dose of fear toxin."

"And he was murdered, which is pretty abnormal even in our circles."

"He was also resurrected, violently at that."

"So he will never really be free of pain, even to the extent that most others can hope to be. But... but I can try to give him a way to feel less alone."

"He already has a few people who will assure him of that quite often."

Guy laughed. "Yes, he does. But he's close to them, and the best lies we tell are intended for those who are nearest to us. Because we don't want them to hurt as we do."

Talia al Ghul nodded, her expression grim.

"I want to give him... tools to cope. To make sure that he doesn't put himself into emotional quandaries he doesn't need to be in. Tools that allow him to evaluate his relationships better, and make sure that he isn't being harmed by those he cares about."

"I don't think that's much of an option."

"Yeah, he'll probably never be free of the person inside his head, and the past will always rankle like a scar that itches every morning. But there will be no more fresh injuries. I'm going to make sure of it."

Jason's mother nodded and patted him on the shoulder.

"Come. We don't want to be late when Jason makes crêpes. Kori and Roy can devour them quite quickly."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have been done with this earlier, but my laptop needed repairs which led to the discovery of bad sectors on the HDD which led to me having to reinstall Ubuntu after erasing the thing. I had to rewrite this chapter from memory, which led to... whatever this is right now.


	7. A Good Soldier (a better son)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talia and Bruce are very different. And yet, both want the same thing - to force Jason to heal.
> 
> Funny how the same desire can mean such different things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talia gives Jason everything he wants, Bruce gives Jason everything he wants.
> 
> Jason just wants to be seen as Jason.

Talia twirled her sword in her hand, going through one of her regular drills to give herself something to do.

It was odd for her to be restless - on Earth, dealing with at least two tasks at the same time was often the norm. Although she had been trying to delegate more of her duties to her trusted lieutenants, that time had been quickly swallowed up by the Outlaws.

Not that she was complaining - she was glad to have a son who did not feel embarrassed to spend time with his mother while around his lovers.

For a while, she had felt a furious desire to give Jason a chance at normalcy - but the need to provide, to prove her love with grand declarations, had reduced with time. She was content to show and receive her son's affection with smaller, more intimate gestures, such as popping in on a Friday evening to cook his favourite sweets with him.

But now, being away from all the annoyances of the earth, and face to face with the pain that Jason's so-called 'family' was causing him, the buried desire to be a visibly better parent than Bruce came rushing back.

She couldn't imagine how Bruce had ever managed to deny a boy like Jason anything he wanted. When Jason had told her that he wanted to kill Bruce for replacing him and not avenging his death, she had complied, despite the love that she still felt for her Beloved.

Yes, she had hoped to dissuade him, but she did not dream of saying 'no'.

Did that make her a bad parent? After all, that was the problem with Pennyworth, was it not? His inability to deny his son a single thing he wants, no matter the propriety or cost?

She wanted to make sure that Jason will never have to live with Bruce's influence hanging over his head, but she knew that it was impossible to make that happen.

As for getting Jason the help he needed to deal with his trauma... Jason had rejected the offer, and she had left it at that.

Maybe she should have pressed harder.

And now, with this ring, and the power of the Black Lantern, the fear of losing her son to his desire to prove his worth had returned too.

She had overheard a conversation between Guy and Kyle, something about Jason 'needing to not feel' for him to use the ring. Bluntly speaking, that did not sound good.

Emotionally distant people make good soldiers, but that was the last thing Jason wanted to be.

He had a particular aversion to being defined by the epitaph devised by his old mentor, immortalized in the Batcave in the form of a memorial of the suit he died in.

Guy Gardner was, at the very least, somewhat trained to take care of people in Jason's position. His experience was somewhat lacking compared to the people Talia would have considered getting for the job, but his connections to the hero community would have to make up for it.

Maybe this was the time to be firm and unyielding in her stance towards her eldest. It was for his benefit, after all.

* * *

Bruce gritted his teeth as he looked over the reports he had on Jason, for what felt like the millionth time in a couple of weeks.

There was no news, just as before.

He slammed his hand down on the table, knocking over a cup and a small box.

He turned to right the disturbed items, but some strange impulse compelled him to open the box.

Inside, was the watch that Jason had once given to him on his birthday.

Bruce felt a sweet warm wave of fondness wash over him as he recalled a young Jason, presenting the watch to him.

It had once belonged to his father, but after the death of his parents, Bruce had never found the time to repair it. (He refused to admit that it was because he was scared of it becoming just another watch.) But one day, Jason had presented the watch to him, almost fully repaired. It had been one of the most cherished birthday gifts he had ever received.

(He stubbornly ignored how the watch had come into his hands this time. That could be dealt with once Jason had been retrieved.)

Bruce cursed, for the umpteenth time, the powers that be that had turned his son against him, had filled him with hate and pushed him to fight his father. Had blinded his son with rage, and changed him into a monster that stood against everything Bruce fought for as Batman.

They would fail. He will take his son back, and _fix_ him.

Starting with therapy.

Jason had always needed therapy.

Life on the streets had been harsh and cruel, almost a proof of Hobbes' idea of the state of nature. Jason had not escaped it unscathed, and he needed someone to help him get better.

Maybe this time, Arkham would finally rehabilitate someone. Bruce would pour everything he had into it to make sure of it.

Jason deserved the best he could give, after all.

His second son had always needed guidance, to make sure that he stayed on the right path. That was what had made him a good Robin.

He might have veered off near the end with Garzonas, but Bruce was confident that he could bring him back. Show him that despite all the times they failed to bring a criminal to justice, others did get their just deserts from the court and even turn their lives around.

And Jason could be one of them.

He just needed some time.

* * *

Talia sat down at the dining table, watching her son mull around this strangely familiar-looking kitchen on a strange planet in outer space.

For some reason, the idea of being _in outer space_ hadn't really settled in yet. Maybe it was because she was still looking out for danger, while simultaneously trying to come to grips with what Jason was getting up to now.

The ring, the proof of his harmful bond with Bruce, the strange nature of his power... there were enough things to think about without marvelling about the beauty of the stars.

_Maybe some other time, when things are calmer, we can lie down and look up at the sky._

She remembered Jason talking about how he hadn't seen the stars while on the streets of Gotham - the first time he laid eyes on them were after he had gone to Wayne Manor as Bruce's new child.

She shook her head, trying to get rid of the distracting musings. _There will be time for that later._

"Habibi. A word, if you will."

Jason looked at her. "Of course, Mom."

"Will you consider speaking to Guy Gardner?"

Jason frowned. He opened his mouth, but stopped, seemingly reconsidering his words. "About what?"

"At the very least, about your ring. But preferably, about... your relationships with the rest of the Gotham vigilantes."

"I don't have any relationships with them. Of any sort."

"Habibi, lying does not suit you."

"Talia, they don't matter. I'm here now, and I'm doing fine. Things will eventually go back to normal over there. They always do. We're just taking a break from each other."

"And what is normal, exactly? Being held at arm's length by and unfairly demanding father?"

"Look, Bruce might be a shitty person on many accounts, but he... he didn't mean-"

"Jason, surely you are capable of some self-reflection here."

Jason does not respond.

"Habibi. You do not need to put up with them."

"I do. There are people in Gotham who need me, who need the Red Hood."

"That does not mean you need to put up with Bruce's wishes. You have the resources to exert your own will in Gotham."

She didn't want to admit it, but it was true - Jason's... older paramours did have a use.

Jason looked shocked.

"You've never approved of them before."

"I still don't. But... you need them. In a lot of ways. And I will not stop you from getting what you want and need."

"Except this therapy thing."

She grimaced. "Yes. I am sorry, but I will not lose you to your pride. You need to talk to someone about this - and I know you will not talk to us. Let it be him."

Jason swallowed thickly, and nodded. "Okay."

* * *

"We have no information on Jason."

Bruce would rather have pulled his teeth out than say it, but... this was now no longer a minor issue.

Jason had been missing for over two weeks, nearing three.

They had _nothing_.

It was getting to all of them. Even Alfred was affected - he had been avoiding the Cave, and even Bruce as much as he could. The only person having regular conversations with his ~~father~~ butler was Cassandra, and they did not reveal the contents of their discussions to anyone.

Fortunately, from what Bruce had learned from the audio bugs, it seemed that they only shared innocent musings about what they could have done to keep Jason around.

They seemed to believe that Bruce had been wrong in his outburst, which... he could agree with. Yes, he did have legitimate concerns about Jason's behaviour, but he did not need to disown Jason ~~again~~. That was an unnecessary overreach and had done more harm than good.

No matter. He could apologize to Jason once he was back under control.

He didn't want to lose his son again, and _definitely_ not like this. His soon needed _help_ , and Batman would ensure that all criminals got as many chances at redemption as they needed.

"We need to try asking his... paramours about his whereabouts."

"First off, never say 'paramours' again, Bruce." Steph's response was instant. "Second, how are we supposed to do that? They refused to spill a thing, and even Tim couldn't get them to budge."

"We have to keep pushing. We cannot just sit idly by while Jason-"

"Yeah, we can't let our resident crime lord go off the rails, but honestly speaking, Bruce, you were probably the one responsible for it."

"I recognize that my words were... unwise, but I will make sure to let Jason know how sorry I am."

"Sorry, I don't think you've come up with a grunt for that."

"Stephanie. Be serious."

Stephanie turned to Cassandra, the obvious question and equally obvious insinuation lingering in the air.

"Truth."

"You better be right, Cassandra. Because if he's lying or hiding something again, then I'm quitting this gig. I don't want to be tainted by the symbol of a liar."

Bruce heaved a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Cassandra seemed to be on his side.

He dismissed the fleeting idea that wanting to put Jason in Arkham might be counted as 'hiding something'. They were just as invested in Jason's recovery and rehabilitation as he was, they would be on his side when he told them. In any case, it bore to relevance to the issue at hand.

First, they needed to find his son.

"We go back to Luthor, Wilson and Ra's." Bruce declared. "This time, however, we shall choose slightly different tactics."

"And what might that be?" Stephanie asked.

"Stephanie and Tim, you will go to Ra's. See if you can convince him to reveal anything. Cassandra and Damian, you shall go to Slade. If he doesn't talk, you can try to question his children - preferably in friendly conversation. And Dick - you will try Luthor. Hopefully, your past association will help you get the information out of him."

"This sounds pointless. They had no clue where Jason was. That's why they came to us."

"But they will have means of getting in touch. It might sound invasive, but we need to be able to pin Jason down to bring him in, and they are our best way of finding out. He is likely to contact them soon. Jason does not like to be indebted to others."

Bruce had learned that when he had taken in a twelve-year-old tire thief, who tried every possible method at his disposal to attempt to pay his adoptive father back for simply taking care of him as any parent should.

Stephanie frowned at him.

"I promise, I'll apologize to him the moment I see him."

"You better."

They all filed out of the Cave, grouping up to head to their targets.

* * *

Jason looked around the place, scanning for any eavesdroppers.

He was on a different planet, deep in the midst of some of the most secure territory there was, but still, old habits and all that.

"I must admit, I didn't expect you to suggest this place."

Guy grinned. "Yeah, I find that patients always talk more when they can feel both free and safe. People underestimate the value of a good clump of woods in a park."

"These are some of the weirdest trees I have seen."

"Wait till you see the shrubs on Ingolor. Or that weird vine-thing on the moons of Blatt. Or that thing on Arf with the huge-"

"Yeah, I get it, you Lanterns travel a lot. Also, Arf?"

"Yep." Guy popped the 'p', his smile as wide as before. "You wanna sit down?"

"I guess I'll have to, this kind of stuff isn't what you talk about standing up."

"Okay... I guess we have some ground rules to go over first." The pair sat down facing each other below a large tree that looked like an alien's interpretation of a banyan. "I think you might know them already, but I have to state them nonetheless."

"Yeah, I know, whatever I say will remain here unless I am a danger to myself or others, you don't prescribe medication, all that jazz."

"It's not a joke, Jason. I'm serious. Your privacy will be preserved."

"Look, Batman or Oracle will get their hands on it anyway. They always get what they want."

Guy seemed to be reevaluating what he should say.

"What? That's just how it is."

"Do you think we'll betray you?"

"It's not betrayal if you're not on my side in the first place."

"Look, we're not fans of Batman either."

"He's the most powerful person in the Justice League. Probably the universe too, given how important his role turns out to be in every crisis."

"And you believe we will capitulate to him if he questions us?"

"Either that or Oracle hacks into whatever you own to either pilfer any records you have or blackmail you into giving up what you know."

"Look, I'm being employed by your mother, who I'm told is the second-in-command of an assassin cult. Besides, there's not much to blackmail me with."

"It doesn't matter. Batman always gets what he wants."

Jason was tired of these games, where they pretended that he had any power whatsoever.

"Look, it might feel like he's in control of everything, but I promise-"

"You don't need to pull the abuse victim card with me, Gardner. I'm just stating facts."

"And that's just it, Jason. You have been abused. By your father. And from what I understand, often right in front of people who claim to be heroes but let this slide."

Jason shook his head. "No, he-"

"Has repeatedly isolated you, invaded your privacy and personal space, put you in danger for no good reason and has verbally slighted you with the intent of hurting your feelings. Even if he hasn't raised a hand against you, that's good enough for cutting someone out of my life."

Jason flinched.

"He hasn't... actually hit you. Has he?"

Jason remained silent.

He couldn't let some random Lantern he just met know his deepest secrets. And even if he could, what were the chances of them agreeing with him?

 _Not great_ , his mind supplied.

"Jason. Has Bruce ever hit you?"

"No... he's only hit me when he wanted to stop me. Stop me from killing someone. Or deliver justice for killing someone. Or-"

He couldn't finish the sentence.

"Jason."

Or else, he would be back there.

"Jason!"

Back in that warehouse, with the clown, and the bomb ticking down.

" _Jason!_ "

He gulped down a deep breath, as the world came rushing back.

"That's good. Deep breaths, with me."

He heard a loud, slow breath going in, and tried following that.

"Good... Now hold for four. Just like me."

He held his breath along with the voice.

"Now out."

He exhaled along with the loud noise of lungs emptying themselves through an open mouth.

Slowly, as he followed the voice and its breathing, he felt the world come back to him.

"You good?"

Jason looked around and focused in on the body before him. It seemed to belong to the voice, which seemed to be... Guy Gardner's?

"Jason. You with me?"

"Yeah... Sorry about that."

"Don't apologize. That wasn't your fault. And... we don't need to discuss that today if you don't want to."

Jason elected to not respond. That was quickly seeming like the best choice here.

"Kyle mentioned that you went off when he said that you would be really good as a soldier with the black ring. And that it seemed to trigger some painful memories. Would you like to talk about that?"

"It's stupid."

"And it bothers you. A lot. You should probably talk about it."

"It's just... back in the Batcave, there's a memorial. Of me."

He wants to stop, but the words come rushing out.

"Well, not me, but the dead Robin that Bruce remembers. It's the suit I died in, bloodstains and all. And he... he put a plaque below it. On it, it says 'A Good Soldier'."

He doesn't want to tell Guy about this, but his mouth keeps moving.

"I hate it. Always have. I was never a good solider. All I was, was a street kid who thought he could fly. Hell, Batman thought I was one step away from being Blackgate material when I was in the scaly panties. He even accused me of murder to validate his stupid classist beliefs."

Guy was frowning, but Jason ignored it. He could listen to what Guy had to say later. Hopefully, he wouldn't get blamed much.

"And then, Kyle said... that I could be that. With the ring."

Jason took a deep, shuddering breath.

"I don't want to be a good soldier. I don't. I just... I just want to be me. I want to be seen for being me."

"That's okay, Jason. That's okay."

Jason braced himself. "You don't have anything to say?"

"What are you expecting?"

"You're supposed to tell me that it's just a plaque and that I can try and ignore it, know that I am more than what he says I am."

"You already know that. What I am here to tell you, is that your feelings are valid."

"You don't need to treat me like I'll break."

"I'm being honest. Those feelings you have, of betrayal, abandonment, anger, sadness, those are all valid. I'm here to help you understand why those words are not true, help you come to terms with the idea of not being defined by what Bruce says about you."

"I told you, Bruce always gets what he wants. I'm always going to be defined by what he says about me."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to prove you wrong."

They both lapse into silence, but this time, Jason doesn't feel like he needs to break it.

He lay down on the grass, and looked up at the setting trio of suns, watching the sky turn a strange-looking yellowish-green hue. From this angle, the slight refraction from the curvature of the dome was somewhat visible to a keen eye, but he could still pretend.

A single solitary thought floats into his head.

_This is nice._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long... I don't think writer's block exactly describes what happened, as much as procrastination, plain and simple. I hope this is worth the wait for you guys. I'll try and update this more frequently, but I've also been getting back into Dota, so time is at a premium.


	8. Justice and therapy are a difficult ask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guy and Jason talk about one of the million issues with Bruce's relationship with his second son.
> 
> And also the options Jason has for therapy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this is so late! I'm going to try to get these out faster here on out, but I can't make promises. Hopefully, the next one won't take a million years to get right.

Guy was, for the most part, angry.

He knew there was a chance that the boy before him was pulling a fast one over them all, but it was unlikely. That response he had to the mere mention of being hit by his father would be difficult to fake that effectively.

But that meant that Batman, the paragon of justice and doing the right thing at any cost, was also someone who would beat up his own son.

And the odds were, he was a repeat offender. Even if there were only one or two incidents of straight-up assault, there was a good chance that he had engaged in other forms of controlling and abusive behaviour.

It felt absurd, to call Batman a child abuser.

God, this was fucked up.

Especially because this was Batman doing this. The guy had so many other kids - was he abusing them too? Or was it just Jason, and he had managed to hide it from the rest? It seemed unlikely that he would be able to hide something like this from his own family of inquisitive detectives - did they not know what was going on, or did they know and simply not care?

All very good questions, to which Guy would like an answer as soon as possible.

He was also pretty sure that he wouldn't like the answers he got to these questions.

At least he was in a position to do _something_ here, as Jason's... therapist? He didn't really know. He was trained as a psychiatrist, but he hadn't had much actual practice in being one in a one-to-one setting - he'd mostly worked with groups, as a volunteer for organizations that lacked the manpower to provide individualized care and couldn't afford to have a separate psychologist.

And Jason desperately needed someone to look at his very unique needs as a patient. It wasn't every day that you found a group where you could talk about dying, coming back to life, and whatever else he had endured on the way that he was holding close to his chest.

The only one he could think of was Dinah, given that she was a League member herself and was also a pseudo-mother to Roy. That would likely give her a foot in the door when it came to being trusted by Jason, his scary assassin mom and the Outlaws.

But truth be told, he wasn't sure if any League members could be trusted. They'd all let this happen to a former Robin under their noses.

His mouth twisted into a bitter grimace as he remembered that it had been going on under his nose too. At least he and the other Earth Lanterns had the excuse of rarely being on their home planet, bolstered by the fact that they were the ones who were actually trying to do something about it.

_Stop. That can wait._

They could ponder what went wrong later when they were in a better place. Now, they had to make things right.

Starting with helping Jason.

_I guess I'm doing this._

* * *

They were back in the park they had gone to for their first... session? Yeah, session. Jason was sitting with his back resting on a large tree trunk, while Guy was leaning on a large rock.

"I thought you didn't take individual patients." Jason pointed out, the surprise leaking into his voice.

"I don't remember telling you that." Guy responded. His lack of familiarity with the Bats was showing.

"The ship has a connection to the Batservers, and my credentials are still usable. Which, by the way, means that Bruce isn't thinking about kicking me out immediately, so I guess things aren't as bad as they could be."

"First, that's creepy. Don't do that. Second, Batservers?"

"Dick wasn't the only one coming up with shitty names back in the day."

"You know what - I don't think I want to know the details of what you know about me. Just don't look too closely into the browser history."

"Too late."

"Don't tell anyone about it?"

"I thought the confidentiality agreement usually involved doctors not telling on their patients."

"Yeah, I'm just making a humble plea to your better nature."

"Wow, you're actually afraid."

"Yeah, because I'm not stupid. And I'm fighting my deepest fears and finding the courage to talk to a Bat who knows my deepest, darkest secrets."

Jason laughs. "Okay, I'll keep it to myself. You have my word."

"Whew. Thanks a lot for your generosity, O Red Hood."

"Cut it... what are we going to talk about today? Dying? Resurrection? Madness? Daddy issues?"

"None of those, actually... I would tell you about the normal confidentiality stuff, but I don't think I can convince you about why that matters just yet. Instead, we can start with something simple, like you looking into my background. If you don't mind, that is."

"Huh?"

"You knew we were having a session, and you decided to gather every scrap of information you had about _me_ , even though this is for us to talk about _you_. You haven't displayed any signs of being uncomfortable around me, and you didn't feel the need to do this before when we talked about the idea of getting therapy for the first time."

"You're doing pretty decent detective work here, at this rate I might be out of a job."

"Nah, I'm accustomed to patients feeling uncomfortable, but this... this is different. Very different."

"How so?"

"You're not uncomfortable about therapy, or opening up to me - you already did that. You're scared about something else."

"You're just fine, Guy. But you're just, you know, a guy. Pun intended. You can be manipulated or used in much the same way as anyone else."

"And you want to do the manipulating first?"

"I want to ensure that you take care of maintaining confidentiality more than you normally would."

"And what do you mean by 'normal'?"

"Babs has access to everything that has ever been recorded digitally, and any written records are also vulnerable because pretty much all of us have had dedicated ninja training at some point."

"Even Oracle?"

"Yep. After she became Oracle, at that. I'm pretty sure the guy who trained her counts as ninja-adjacent, at least."

"Who was it?"

"Richard Dragon."

"You know, I _have_ heard of the guy, and I have several questions, but I'm not going to bother asking."

"Good choice."

"But getting back to you looking into my background for leverage - why did you feel you needed it?"

"You need some reason to keep shut when Bruce comes calling. You might be able to secure yourself, by giving me your notes or setting something up with Talia, but they'll just come to you instead. And when they do, you should have some incentive to not spill your guts to them."

"And why do you think I'll do that?"

"There's probably a whole argument to be had about that, but in the end, it boils down to this - Bruce always gets what he wants. No matter the cost, to himself or others."

Guy made a mental note to get back to that later.

"You know, you're supposed to tell me that you're not going to let that happen."

"Honestly, you Bats are scary. I'm not sure if I can promise that. All I can say is that I will try my best."

Jason smiled sadly in response.

"But if you don't mind indulging me for a bit and allow me to make my case - I'd like to talk about this more, about your belief that Wayne always gets his way. You seem to see this as a bad thing."

"A rich white guy who chose the right parents to be born to, who is wealthier than any other individual by a _huge_ margin, who is also Batman and commands a bunch of people by virtue of professed moral superiority, who is used to always getting what he wants. You're telling me that you see no chance for problems with this? Especially with his history of treating you guys like shit?"

"I don't know Wayne. I have met him and worked with him, yes, but I don't know him nearly as well as you do. So tell me, why are you worried about him?"

"He... he doesn't want to admit that he can be wrong. Because if he does, then he has to admit that he's done bad things that he needs to apologize for, and he can't stomach the idea of other people having power over him."

"To be blunt, it seems to be a trait you share with him."

"Oh trust me, I don't have a problem with other people having power over me." Jason winked for added effect. "Just not him."

"You seem to believe he will misuse any power you give him over your person."

"Hell yeah he will. That's what he always does."

"Always?"

"What do you know about my death?"

"Not much. There was a mission, you went ahead to face the Joker without Batman's permission, and you got killed."

"Yeah, so basically a story that disregards all context and is made up of straight-up lies just to ensure that Bruce can tell people that he is the guy who suffered the most from my death, even more than me, the guy who did the dying."

"What's yours, then?"

"So... context first, then."

Jason started drumming his fingers on the ground next to him as he launched into his tale.

"B and I were... not on good terms. I was getting 'too violent' with criminals, and everyone kept talking about how I was going to turn out like my father. Dick hated me because I took his mantle, and thanks to that, I had literally no friends in the hero community. Alfred, thanks to his allegiance to Bruce, wouldn't say a damn thing to the guy, and Barbara's professional opinion of me was that I would never be Dick Grayson."

Guy looked intrigued, and leaned in as Jason went on with his tale.

"Then the Garzonas case happened. In case you don't know - Felipe Garzonas was the son of a diplomat and a rapist. We found him with one of his victims, but he had diplomatic immunity, so he got off scot-free and threatened to go back to rape the woman he had been assaulting. The lady, Gloria Stanson, killed herself, because she, quite understandably, didn't want to be subjected to that kind of senseless traumatizing violence again, especially now that she knew that there was no hope for justice. After all, Batman had decided that she did not deserve any of his sympathy because he's a privileged dipshit and asshole who doesn't understand a fucking thing about how the world works."

Jason could feel the green seeping in, but he didn't want to stop. Not now.

"I was the one who found her dead body. And... Bruce was willing to brush it off, as collateral damage in his job. Like he didn't just abandon her."

Jason barked out a humourless laugh, short and sharp.

"I wasn't exactly willing to let things lie there. So I went to Garzonas. Found him on the balcony of his penthouse, high as a kite off of either the cocaine or the alcohol."

Jason looked Guy in the eye.

"At this point, I'd like to remind you of something - you only have my word for this. Remember that I am the only living witness of what happened. There were no cameras, and not much in the way of conclusive evidence one way or another."

"Okay... go ahead."

"I walked up to him, Batarang in hand, to try and scare him. I didn't have much in the way of concrete plans, but my plans, as far as I can remember, were mainly about cutting him up, breaking a couple of bones, dislocating some joints and _maybe_ a but of castration."

"...Uh, I don't think you can do castration in bits."

"You can't? Shame. Anyway, I was walking up to the guy, and he was _scared_. So scared that he slipped on the wine that he had spilt and toppled over the balcony and fell."

Guy frowned.

"You only have my word for this, and nothing else. Whether you believe me or not, I don't particularly care anymore."

Guy looked like he was about to say something, but Jason interrupted him.

"Nah, don't bother. Anyway, Bruce came charging in and asked me what happened. I told him that the fucker fell, and I thought that was that. Except that it wasn't, and now Bruce is accusing me of murder with no evidence."

Guy nodded, probably to show that he was following so far. Jason decided to take it as that and keep going.

"A couple of days later, we were fighting some minor drug dealers, and I broke one guy's collarbone. When we came back, we got into another argument. One thing led to another, I don't remember most of what we said. But the end result was him benching me."

The green was becoming brighter, as his anger mounted.

"I was... lost. In a house that I didn't belong in, with people who didn't want me. So I ended up looking through my mother's stuff since that was all I had left of the only parent who had ever loved me."

Jason swallowed thickly, trying to suppress his nervousness.

"Turns out, I wasn't her biological kid. And now that Talia's around, I understand how pointless that was, but back then, it was a chance of finding someone who might love me, and I took it."

Jason knew it was probably a bad idea to try and go through those memories, but he kept going anyway. He had to get this out, to make sure that Guy would take him seriously.

"Her name was Sheila Haywood. She was working as a volunteer doctor for an Ethiopian relief organization, something like Doctors Without Borders but with ties to Gotham. I used Bruce's Amex card to get a ticket to Israel and hopped through a couple of flights to get to Qurac, where they were stationed at the time. Imagine my surprise when I find Bruce there, chasing a lead on the Joker."

Jason looked at Guy to make sure he was paying attention. They were getting to the important part, after all.

"Bruce... he didn't react well to seeing me. He... he..."

"What did he say, Jason?" Guy's voice was calm and soft, but still firmly inquisitive, clamouring for answers.

"He... he said that I wasn't his son."

Jason laughed, to try and prevent himself from crying.

"To be precise, his exact words were something like this - _I'm not your father, Jason. I don't need teenage rebellion._ "

Guy looked shocked, but Jason wasn't really in the mood for stopping, despite all the signs saying that it was a bad idea.

"That was the last time we spoke. Kinda fitting, in a way."

The green began to bleed into his vision, instead of being a mere feeling. He ignored it.

"I tracked down my mother. She was in a warehouse that was connected to the lead Batman was chasing, so... I tried to approach her. To save her. I couldn't just let her die."

Jason laughed again, his cackle cold and harsh and grating.

"So I approached her, and told her that I was her son. She wasn't listening, so I told her that I was Robin. Showed her the costume, took off my mask, said my name. She took a look at me, and told me to come into the warehouse, assured me that the Joker had left."

Jason grimaced, the tears springing into his eyes. This was probably going to get ugly.

"She was lying, of course. Once I was in, she put a gun to my head and handed me over to the Joker. See, she had been embezzling funds from the charity she was working for, and the Joker knew it. Apparently, the plan was to use me as a bargaining chip to save her hide, to escape from the Joker's blackmail. Of course, it didn't work. When the clown was done beating me, he broke her legs too, before leaving and setting up the bomb. But I'm guessing you knew that."

Guy nodded, slow but certain.

"When I realized I couldn't get out, that I was going to die, I tried to shield her, you know. Even though she betrayed me. I wonder why."

"Because you wanted to do the right thing."

"Oh please, don't act as if saving a criminal who sold out her own kid to save herself from embezzlement charges was something that would have benefited the world."

"Then why did you do it?"

"She was my mom."

Guy nodded, but Jason doubted if the other man really understood what he meant.

"I remember... I remember being scared, near the end. After the building blew, and the walls collapsed, and I was choking under the dust. It was dark, and it hurt, but I was still scared."

He felt the green overflow over his vision, covering the world in that dreadful colour.

His collapsed to the ground, his breathing speeding up as he tried to get a hold of himself, fighting to reject the visions that he should have been able to dismiss but remained before his eyes.

He could hear a distant voice calling his name, but they weren't going to be on time. He was going to die here, in this collapsing building, trying to save a mother who didn't want him.

He braced himself, waiting for the explosion to blow him away, for the falling pillars to crush him, for the smoke to burn his lungs and choke him.

But it never happened.

The voice came back, closer and more insistent.

"Jason! You with me?"

_Huh? Who's that?_

"Tell me five things you can see."

"Uh... a tree trunk. Looks really big. And... grass. It's... more blue than green, now that I look at it. And a rock. It's... reddish-brown?"

"Yep. It is."

"Looks suspiciously similar to Earth."

"You'll be surprised how many planets are like that. Something tells me that green chlorophyll is the correct way for evolution, most of the time."

"There's times when it isn't?"

"Yes. You're doing really well, Jason. Just two more."

"You, obviously. And... the sky. It looks clear. Not even blue."

"Yeah, at least it isn't raining. Now tell me four things you can hear."

"Your voice. The wind. The grass, at least when I move. Also a clicking sound... some bird?"

"It's something like a dog, but not really. You'll hear it quite often, but it's the shy type. I've only ever seen it once."

"We should probably come around with a camera next time."

"Yeah, I guess we should." Guy sounded happy. "You're doing great, Jason. Can you name three things you can smell?"

"The grass. Minty. Should pick some of it up to see what it tastes like, right?"

"Maybe later. Two more, Jason."

"The perfume I wore before coming here. Something sweet, from the trunk here."

"Yeah, that's the bark. The native population uses it as a substitute for honey."

"There's a native population?"

"Yeah, there is. Not many of them, though, so running into people outside of the cities is unusual."

"You gotta take me there sometime, then."

"I will. One more?"

"Oh yeah, your sweat. Smells gross."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Guy's reply was deadpan, but there was just a slight hint of warmth in his voice.

Jason took a deep breath, as the green faded away.

"You with me now?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, two things - first, if you think that talking about something is bringing up traumatic memories, then stop. We're not in a hurry here. Second, I think we probably need to work on some coping strategies for you when you're alone."

"First - I'm almost always reliving my traumatic memories, at least it was for a decent enough reason this time. Second - what do you propose, pills or square breathing? Because I'm not on board with the first, and I already have a handle on the second."

"Jason, you don't need to try and convince me that you have been wronged by Bruce-"

"Wronged?" Jason laughed mirthlessly. "Guy, he decided to blame a kid for his death just to control his Robins and simultaneously blamed himself to feed his guilt complex."

"Yes, and that is fucked up and wrong. But you don't need to hurt yourself for me to help you."

"I'm always hurting. Isn't your job to cure it, or at least provide some palliative care?"

"Palliative care - what's that supposed to mean?"

"You know, the stuff they give to people who're on the verge of death, like those with terminal cancer-"

"I know what it means, Jason. What's it supposed to signify? Be honest."

"Look, if you want to read suicidal intent into that, that's just you. I'm just being aware of how precariously close to death we always are."

Guy just sighs.

"You got anything else?"

"You said that you don't want medication - do you mind telling me why?"

"I don't want to have to try and suffer through you experimenting with what exact combination of drugs stop me from being an inconvenience."

"Is that what you think you are? An inconvenience?"

"Lemme rephrase that - I don't want to have to try and suffer through you experimenting with what exact combination of drugs remove my inconvenient traits and make me more stable and less prone to hurting the people I care about."

"This isn't about making you easier to tolerate, this is about giving you a chance to build a better life-"

"I have a mother who would do anything for me, and four partners who wouldn't be far behind. I have a daughter and a son, who I love with all my heart and who see the best in me and bring it out to the surface. And I have people, powerful people, I can rely on to be in my corner if I need the extra firepower. It won't get much better than this for me."

"It can. You can learn to be happier. You can learn to break away from the damaging people in your life. You can try and get closure for all the wrongs that have been done to you."

Jason snapped his fingers. "That's it. That right there. _Try and get closure._ I don't want to _try and get closure_ , Guy. I don't want to waste my time on shots in the dark, over and over and over again, stumbling around for something that works."

"Look, I know it's natural to want a simpler solution, but there isn't one. The human mind is complex, and there's only so much we can do."

"Then get better. I shouldn't have to tell you this. You want me to take what you do as an actual scientific endeavour and not a drunk guy playing darts, get better at your job."

"Jason, I know it's easy to dismiss therapy as something that doesn't work, but it does."

"Oh, I do know it does work. What I'm telling you is this - I don't want the version where you drug me up to figure out what works the best. If you can't work within that restriction, we're done."

"That's fine. We don't need to go down the medication route yet if you're not comfortable."

"It's not a _yet_ , it's a _will never do this shit_. Remember that."

"Okay." Guy looks significantly less comfortable than before.

"Look, I know it's easy for you to dismiss what I'm saying as an idiot sceptic who doesn't know what he's talking about, but it's not going to change. If you're planning to warm me up to a drug regimen, you better change your plans."

"I'm not planning on giving you drugs against your will, Jason. You're not in any danger right now, so that's not on the table."

Jason sighs. "So, what else you got?"

"Apart from square breaths? Try maintaining a journal, to write down what you see and feel when you have negative thoughts and flashbacks."

"I'm a vigilante. Most of my flashbacks happen when I'm being beaten up with a crowbar by criminals."

"Pick up something outside of vigilantism - a job, a volunteer position, college, whatever you feel like. You need to have something outside of this."

"Yeah, and go to Gotham University? I'll pass. I have a distance degree from Cambridge, and an on-campus degree isn't an option right now. Lian doesn't need to be punted around the Atlantic to an unfamiliar place and a new school system just for me."

Guy seemed like he was still chewing on that, which was probably a problem, but Jason decided to ignore it.

"Anything else?"

"Talk to me. We talk about what is bothering you, work through it, figure out how to deal with it. Hopefully, we find some success with that."

"And you don't bring up drugs again?"

"For now."

"Fine, I'll take what I can get."

They fall into a somewhat comfortable silence, as Jason listens to the clicking sound.

"What exactly does that dog-like thing you mentioned look like?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally wanted to tackle the idea of therapy itself more directly, but it ended up feeling out of place. So in reference to [@zeebee823](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeebee823/)'s comment on the previous chapter - I feel therapy is about twenty years too early to be as effective as it needs to be. It feels like we need about a generation of research for it to be able to diagnose and treat people as effectively as 'conventional physical medicine', for lack of a better term. Couple that with the absurd levels of power mental health professionals have over their patients, and you have a recipe for an unfair system that skates by because it saves lives, ignoring the extreme inefficiencies and systemic power imbalances.
> 
> I have had some... interesting interactions with psychiatrists with respect to my asexuality. I've tried to mirror that in Guy's (not so) subtle attempts to push Jason to accept medication as a valid treatment - yes, you might feel like you're landing on some grand insight here and have an opportunity to break through your patient's biases, but sometimes, you need to learn to back the fuck off.
> 
> I hope I'm not being offensive to any mental health professionals here. I'm trying to do my best to represent a people who I've been routinely mistreated by, so I request you to be somewhat forgiving towards my scepticism.

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I would like to credit [@I_can_only_imagine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_can_only_imagine/) for the idea of Jason as a Black Lantern, and I hope I'm not being too derivative here. I'm not that educated in GL lore, so I'm mostly running off of fan wikis and whatever I've managed to absorb via osmosis from other titles and pop culture.
> 
> Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it.


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